Aunt asks for help to get Tom Hanks to meet her sick nephew

A New Jersey woman has set out to perform a difficult task on behalf of her sick nephew.

News 12 Staff

Jun 4, 2019, 12:53 AM

Updated 1,959 days ago

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Aunt asks for help to get Tom Hanks to meet her sick nephew
What wouldn’t you do for a sick family member?
A New Jersey woman has set out to perform a difficult task on behalf of her sick nephew.
Diana Gaccione wrote on Facebook about her quest to contact actor Tom Hanks to get him to meet her nephew Luca, who is suffering from a very serious lung disease.
Gaccione wrote that Luca started off with pneumonia, which quickly progressed into acute respiratory distress syndrome. She says that she spoke with him on the morning of May 20, and by that evening he was sedated and on a ventilator. He spent seven days in a medically induced coma and nine days on a ventilator.
Gaccione wrote that Luca, who is 10 years old, does not like to hug anyone, but that after he woke up from the coma he agreed to hug her for $20.
Luca suffered another setback this week and will need to undergo a procedure to place a tube to drain the fluid around his lung. Gaccione says that he is scared, but finds comfort in his favorite movie “Toy Story” and his Woody doll – a character from that movie.
Gaccione asked her nephew for another hug – which he agreed to under one condition – “You get me Tom Hanks, and I’ll give you one hug,” he told her. But a request of this magnitude has to be worth more than just one hug – and it is. Luca agreed to hugs for life if she succeeds.
“We are willing to do anything to provide Luca and his parents Teresa and PJ with some extra encouragement and support through this really tough time, even if it means tracking down Tom Hanks!” Gaccione wrote.
Gaccione is asking all her friends and family to share her Facebook post in the hopes that it gets Tom Hanks’ attention.