The Day I Met Phil of the “Amazing Race”

That's me with Phil of "The Amazing Race"!!!

April 25, 2011.

It was a great day, that 25^th day in April, the day I met Phil Keoghan of the “Amazing Race”. He is seriously such a cool guy and a huge MS hero!

I got this chance to meet Phil (yeah, we’re on a first name basis, he’s my new MS BFF) with my good friend Sandy J at the screening of his movie “The Ride”. This movie was incredible. It documented Phil’s journey across the US of A on his bike and he raised over $500,000 for MS!

Me with "The Goths" of the Amazing Race

When we entered the movie theatre lobby, we were greeted by two “Amazing Race” contestants, Vixen and Kent (aka “The Goths”). What a great surprise! They were really nice and even gave me a hug! Phil was in the theatre before the movie started, snapping pictures with VIP audience members. Initially I was bummed because we were not VIP audience members and I wanted nothing more than to meet Phil in person and give him a present. No. One. Else. Was. Allowed. To. Enter. The. VIP. Area. Shit – now what? Sandy J stepped up and led me straight over there. We marched past the moviegoers, ducked the photography light boxes, walked past the photographer and stood in line to meet Phil. No one resisted. MSers are so nice.

Chatting with Phil Keoghan

Within moments I was standing next to Phil. Cool! We chatted about my diagnosis and a bit about the gift I made for him – a T Shirt with a simple message: 2.5 million people in the world live with MS. Phil seemed really bummed. Not about the gift but its message, “I thought it was only 2 million”, he said. Nonetheless, he told me that I had a “great attitude and that you seem to be handling things quite well”. I gave him my card and, upon looking at my profile picture printed on it, the one of me screaming my head off, he said, “that’s a great picture. I love it. It just about says it all, doesn’t it?”

We weren’t allowed to use our own cameras to take photos but someone in charge grabbed mine to snap some anyway. And, I also got a professional shot with Phil. “Make sure you show the T-Shirt”, he said.

Phil checking out my present!

I was thrilled. When he later addressed the audience, moments before the movie started, he gave me a shout out. He told the audience that he didn’t realize 2.5 million people live with MS and that a young woman gave him a T-Shirt with this message. His assistant held it up for all to see. How cool is that? Again, I was thrilled. 


Best always,
Christie