Matthew Chan, a Tesla superfan battling stage 4 colon cancer, had a dream fulfilled Wednesday when he received a VIP tour of the Tesla factory and had the opportunity to meet the automaker’s top executives.
The day was arranged after TMC Member Alan Miller shared Chan’s story on the forum.
In a post titled “A Tesla Owner with Cancer’s Dying Dream,” Miller wrote:
My best friend from medical school, Matthew Chan, is a 39 year old radiologist in Sacramento with 3 kids who was just diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. His life expectancy is measured in months, probably less than 6.
I am helping him with his bucket list. He is a HUGE Tesla fan and has a Model S P85D and Model X 90D. He’s done his 2 factory tours. He has solar panels charging his Teslas and works for his local EV club. He’s a total EV nut.
I asked what he wanted to do when I go out and visit him in 2 weeks and he said, “I’ll give you my next born if you can get me a meeting with JB Straubel or Franz Vons Holzhausen.”
Shortly after, TMC Member and Tesla’s President of Sales and Service Jon McNeill replied to the post:
Alan — we’re on it. Will see if we can help.
Tesla came through in a big way for Chan. In addition to special access to the factory and the opportunity to meet factory workers that built his cars, Chan had the opportunity to chat with Tesla’s Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen. Miller shared details of the day in a Facebook post:
“Franz sat for an hour and talked to Matt about his design philosophy of all the cars. About how he went from paper to computer to reality of his designs and how his goal is to “make people fall in love with the car, but they not know why.” Details of designing the feel and flow of the interior. Why when you charge there is no traditional gas cap. How the car made him feel when he sees it and the team philosophy alive at Tesla. It was truly a magical moment to see Matt soaking up every word Franz said and as a non-Tesla owner/geek I just felt like going out and buying one because you could hear and feel that Franz and his team had put every fiber of their creative beings into designing and building this car and they really wanted it to be not just good, but the best.”
Von Holzhausen even gave Chan a shoutout on Twitter.
But, access to Tesla’s top brass didn’t stop there. Chan also met with Elon Musk.
According to Miller’s post:
“Elon Musk appeared from his Tesla and walked straight over to me (until I pointed him in the correct direction of Matt). He was very polite and cordial and spoke to Matt for a few minutes. Matt then gave him a gift of wine (thanks Colleen Gerke!) he had for everyone who helped make it happen and we got a few pictures and he disappeared into the large, humming Tesla factory.
We were all shellshocked and stood there for a few minutes trying to process what had just happened. Our driver, Rob Temmerman, who works at the Tesla showroom summed it up best when he corrected me. I said “Wow. That was a one-in-a-million moment that we all just had.” Rob then said, “No, that was one-in-a-billion moment. I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Following the special day Miller thanked the TMC community for helping make it happen. We are certainly wishing Chan and his family the best.
The day was arranged after TMC Member Alan Miller shared Chan’s story on the forum.
In a post titled “A Tesla Owner with Cancer’s Dying Dream,” Miller wrote:
My best friend from medical school, Matthew Chan, is a 39 year old radiologist in Sacramento with 3 kids who was just diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. His life expectancy is measured in months, probably less than 6.
I am helping him with his bucket list. He is a HUGE Tesla fan and has a Model S P85D and Model X 90D. He’s done his 2 factory tours. He has solar panels charging his Teslas and works for his local EV club. He’s a total EV nut.
I asked what he wanted to do when I go out and visit him in 2 weeks and he said, “I’ll give you my next born if you can get me a meeting with JB Straubel or Franz Vons Holzhausen.”
Shortly after, TMC Member and Tesla’s President of Sales and Service Jon McNeill replied to the post:
Alan — we’re on it. Will see if we can help.
Tesla came through in a big way for Chan. In addition to special access to the factory and the opportunity to meet factory workers that built his cars, Chan had the opportunity to chat with Tesla’s Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen. Miller shared details of the day in a Facebook post:
“Franz sat for an hour and talked to Matt about his design philosophy of all the cars. About how he went from paper to computer to reality of his designs and how his goal is to “make people fall in love with the car, but they not know why.” Details of designing the feel and flow of the interior. Why when you charge there is no traditional gas cap. How the car made him feel when he sees it and the team philosophy alive at Tesla. It was truly a magical moment to see Matt soaking up every word Franz said and as a non-Tesla owner/geek I just felt like going out and buying one because you could hear and feel that Franz and his team had put every fiber of their creative beings into designing and building this car and they really wanted it to be not just good, but the best.”
Von Holzhausen even gave Chan a shoutout on Twitter.
But, access to Tesla’s top brass didn’t stop there. Chan also met with Elon Musk.
According to Miller’s post:
“Elon Musk appeared from his Tesla and walked straight over to me (until I pointed him in the correct direction of Matt). He was very polite and cordial and spoke to Matt for a few minutes. Matt then gave him a gift of wine (thanks Colleen Gerke!) he had for everyone who helped make it happen and we got a few pictures and he disappeared into the large, humming Tesla factory.
We were all shellshocked and stood there for a few minutes trying to process what had just happened. Our driver, Rob Temmerman, who works at the Tesla showroom summed it up best when he corrected me. I said “Wow. That was a one-in-a-million moment that we all just had.” Rob then said, “No, that was one-in-a-billion moment. I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Following the special day Miller thanked the TMC community for helping make it happen. We are certainly wishing Chan and his family the best.
