The family of an eight-year-old cancer survivor has spoken out after she was pushed down the stairs at Highmark Stadium by another spectator.
Mia DeCamilla, a pediatric liver cancer survivor, reportedly had her first-ever NFL game ruined when a rowdy Buffalo Bills fan knocked her down the stairs at a frosty Highmark Stadium during the Bills’ Week 13 game against the San Francisco 49ers.
Mia, who is a 49ers fan taking after her dad, was purposefully shoved because she was cheering for the opposing team, her parents claimed.
‘The guy purposely walked through and was pushing through people,’ Mia’s father Mike DeCamilla told WIVB about the ‘drunk’ fan who claimed that he was going to ‘push through all these Niner fans’ while walking down a snow-covered part of the stairs.
‘I get that it’s busy and hectic, but he had to be six-foot and she is less than 100 lbs.’
Mia wasn’t injured in the incident but it did leave her so shook up that she wanted to leave the game.
Mia DeCamilla was pushed down the stairs at Highmark Stadium, her parents said
‘He actually bumped me and my son a little bit and then got past me and pushed her, almost slid off the stairs, and hit her side on the chairs,’ Mike added.
Mia had been excited and ‘full of energy’ before the incident but was left feeling ‘uncomfortable and I just don’t feel ready to go there anymore.’
Mia said that she and her dad bonded over the Niners games she battled liver cancer, which she was diagnosed with in January 2022.
‘Me and my dad in the hospital, we’ll watch football together, and then when I come home, sometimes for breaks, like in the hospital, when I had cancer, I will sit down and just relax and watch football all day, that’s what I like and how I made my team,’ Mia told WIVB.
Photos of Mia before the game showed her excitedly dressed in Niners gear, holding up signs saying ‘I Beat Cancer! My First NFL Game!’
After news of the family’s story spread across social media, multiple people connected to the league and to the Bills reached out to try and spread awareness.
Former wide receiver Antonio Brown amplified Mia’s GoFundMe page – which went on to blow past its $10,000 goal and now stands at over $39,000 at the time of publishing.
The former NFL star claimed that he planned to FaceTime with Mia and help to raise awareness for her battle.
Wintery conditions led to Highmark Stadium being blanketed with nearly two dozen feet of snow
The DeCamillas are 49ers fans, but hail from upstate New York – where the winter has already gotten underway as snow fell early and often.
Western New York was battered by lake effect snow throughout the weekend, but fans and staff managed to dig out 23 inches of the white stuff to get the game on as planned.
And it did not disappoint as fans took to social media to share their love for the conditions – from the warmth and comfort of their homes.
For fans inside the stadium it was a slightly different experience, as social media clips emerged of them climbing to their seats through layers of snow, wrapped in coats and scarves for the big game.
