Proud dad doesn't let cancer stop him from escorting daughter as she is crowned homecoming queen
Entertainment
He was arm-in-arm with his beaming daughter
(Web Desk) - An Alabama family will never forget a special moment that occurred at a homecoming event.
Last month, Brett Yancey, 47, who has esophageal cancer, made the 50-yard walk down Southside High School's football field with his daughter, 17, who was crowned this year’s homecoming queen.
“Honestly, I could feel my heart beating out my chest,” Carrie Yancey, Brett’s wife, tells PEOPLE of watching the scene unfold from the bleachers.
“He was holding my daughter pretty tight, I just kept praying, 'You can make it, you can make it.'"
"Tears just rolled down my face," she adds.
Carrie, 48, explains that recently Brett, who has been dealing with cancer for seven years, hasn't had enough energy to walk from the bed to the bathroom.
She worried that he would be too worn out to make the walk at the homecoming ceremony.
"He had struggled last week to even pick up his left leg which is why escorting her across the field was a major ordeal," she adds.
Carrie had suggested Brett use a golf cart to take him to meet his daughter on the football field.
But according to NBC affiliate WVTM-TV, he told his wife, “I don't need a golf cart — I'm going to walk my baby to the opposite sideline."
Overcoming the odds, the proud father was arm-in-arm with his beaming daughter Sarakate, who wore her crown and carried flowers, as they walked together across the field.
“Thank the Lord, he did it,” Carrie tells PEOPLE. “I think it was a moment that many will never forget."
Brett, a former high school football coach, and Carrie, an elementary school principal, have been married for 25 years.
Carrie tells PEOPLE that due to the traveling they've had to do for Brett's treatment, they haven't always been able to be around as much as they'd like for their three daughters.
