An eight-year-old girl who is battling cancer was shoved by an NFL fan while attending a Buffalo Bills game against the 49ers on Sunday, her family claims.
Mia DeCamilla was diagnosed with childhood undifferentiated embryonal sarcoma of the liver in January 2022. She has battled and beat liver cancer twice after relapsing in May of last year.
She became a 49ers fan while watching their games with her father in the hospital and wanted to see them go head-to-head with the Bills last weekend. The family lives in Rochester, New York, and commuted to Buffalo for the game, according to WIVB.
But what happened at the child’s first-ever NFL game left her “emotionally shaken” and unwilling to go back to another game anytime soon.
Mia’s father, Mike Decamilla, said a “drunk” Bills fan tried pushing her down the stairs as they were in an unshoveled section of the stadium.
“He said, ‘I’m going to push through all these Niner fans,” Mike DeCamilla told WIVB. “So, 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 like side on the chairs.” Mia was not physically harmed.
The incident made the family so uncomfortable they left the game before it ended, the outlet reported.
“The guy purposely walked through and was pushing through people,” Mike DeCamilla added. “I get that it’s busy and hectic, but he had to be 6 foot and she is less than 100 pounds.”
Mia had been excited to watch the game. She showed up at the stadium with an “I beat cancer” sign.
“In the car, when we were driving there, I was saying like, ‘Are we there yet?’ I was too excited. I was full of energy,” the girl told WIVB. Now, Mia says she won’t be back at the stadium anytime soon after the incident.
“We don’t want to go back because I felt uncomfortable and I just don’t feel ready to go there anymore,” said Mia.
She and her father are speaking out about the incident to raise awareness about what kids like her are experiencing. “I know that there’s competitiveness and whatnot, but there’s a point where it’s a family event,” Mia’s father said.
It’s unclear if the incident was reported to police. The Bills have yet to respond to the allegations.
Following the incident, many people on social media called on Bills fans to “do better” and said what allegedly happened to the girl is not a reflection of how Bills fans treat others.
The incident caught the attention of NFL player Antonio Brown, a wide receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who organized a Facetime with Mia. A GoFundMe to help support her battle has raised $26,000 out of a $10,000 goal.
