We’ve been reporting on the quest of Star Wars super fan Daniel Fleetwood to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens before he died. Now, after getting his wish just a few days ago, the news has come through that Daniel has passed away, aged 32.
After the online campaign to let terminally ill Daniel see a cut of the film went viral – even backed by the likes of Mark Hamill and John Boyega – no one could have predicted the love that Lucasfilm and Disney showed by letting him have his own early screening of the film. Daniel was suffering from a rare form of cancer called spindle cell sarcoma, and was told he had two months to live in July.
Daniel’s wife Ashley put out this heartwarming Facebook message following the news of his passing:
Following Lucasfilm showing the film to Daniel, he spoke to a fellow fan whose post in the Star Wars subreddit reads, “What I do know is that he was genuinely blown away by the movie. He kept telling us that it’s great, and he loved how it felt true to the original trilogy.”
We at FTN along with our friends at SquareEyed are very sad to hear of Daniel’s passing, but are glad to know his final wish came true.
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
Nerd Comments