Fairfield’s Gabby Ford this week’s ‘Kid Captain’

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — When the Iowa football team takes the football field at Penn State this weekend, the Hawkeyes will have a little extra boost from miles and miles away in Fairfield.

Fairfield 17-year old Gabby Ford was chosen as this week’s honorary ‘Kid Captain,’ a program the school puts on with the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital, which Ford is all too familiar with.

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“They've saved Gabby's life twice,” says Ford’s mother, Mandy. “That's the simplest answer.”

At age 10, Gabby was flown to the children’s hospital after it was revealed she had a buildup of fluid and a mass in the middle of her brain. She was diagnosed with hypothalamic pilocytic astrocytoma, which is a brain tumor that originates from cells called ‘astrocytes.’

Gabby had been battling influenza and was taken to her local hospital, and although initial tests came back negative, she developed a headache the next day and collapsed, prompting her father, David, who was a paramedic at the time, to send her back to the hospital.

What followed were multiple surgeries, including a seven-hour debulking surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible.

Gabby has been fighting the disease for the past seven years, and was actually the fourth patient that was moved in when the hospital opened.

“It’s phenomenal to have a 70-minute drive one way, versus three or four hours each time,’ her mom says.

Gabby, how at Fairfield High School, says she was surprised by getting chosen for Kid Captain. The family had applied for a handful of years but finally got the call in 2023.

Gabby says she loves the hospital in Iowa City, and that the people there mean a lot to her.

“They welcome me with open hands,” Gabby says. “It’s safe and happy.”

Gabby won’t be physically at Penn State on Saturday, but will be in attendance next week during the Homecoming game, when Iowa takes on Michigan State.

Gabby, who used to play soccer says she doesn’t know anything about football, but that her grandma is. She plans on sitting by her grandma at the Michigan State game, so she can explain everything.

The players this week, however, will have Gabby with them in more than spirit. She sent some of her signature ‘Gabby talk love hugs,’ which are Hershey’s Hugs that she has been known for around the children’s hospital.

When Gabby was in the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (PICU), she began handing out the Hershey’s Hugs since she couldn’t give out any real ones.

Gabby plans on sharing her signature Hugs with the high school this week, but she hasn’t yet as she has been focused on handing out her special ‘Kid Captain’ player cards, which she likens to Pokemon cards.

Iowa’s game with Penn State will begin at 6:30 p.m.