Boy fighting cancer fills wish

Five-year-old Blake Matthews is a huge dinosaur fan, his favorite kind, the Tyrannosaurus rex.

Blake is fighting with T-Rex strength against brain cancer, but with help from the Make-A-Wish, Blake got to have his dream dinosaur day Saturday.

“To have a community open up their arms like this is beyond belief,” said Brandy Mattews, Blake’s mom.

Although the venue has only been open for three weeks, the Royal Gorge Dinosaur Experience’s president says he was contacted by Make-A-Wish in March and the exhibit was thrilled to help out with Blake’s experience.

“We’ve really looked forward to this day for quite some time now,” said Zach Reynolda, the president of the Royal Gorge Dinosaur Experience.

Blake and his parents toured the museum, had a dino party, saw life-like, moving dinosaurs, and even had a snow cone named after him.

“It’s absolutely amazing, there’s been nothing but love and pure kindness and compassion from everybody,” Brandy said.

For the staff at the Dinosaur Experience., kids like Blake are a big reason they do what they do.

“This is exactly why we wanted to create this facility, this exhibit is because we wanted to bring joy to kids,” Reynolds said.

Blake was also given lifetime membership to the Dinosaur Experience and had his favorite dino dedicated to him.

“It’s been a very exciting time, expecting something amazing and it actually came out to be something way more amazing than we expected,” Brandy said.

Blake finished his last chemo treatment a few weeks ago and his parents say he’s doing well.