IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – An 8-year-old Coralville boy who beat cancer will be the kid captain at the Iowa Hawkeyes football team’s season-opening game against Illinois State on Saturday.

Carter Schmidt has overcome an extremely rare form of leukemia thanks to a bone marrow transplant at the Stead Family Children’s Hospital of the University of Iowa Health Care.

“Carter was healthy until he was 9 months old, when he became pale and lethargic and stopped eating,” UIHC said in a news release. “After a blood draw at his local doctor’s office, Carter was taken to Stead Family Children’s Hospital, where he was diagnosed with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia, a rare blood cancer that affects only one in 1.2 million children.”

Carter’s care team was able to find a perfect bone marrow transplant donor in a man from Mississippi who agreed to be his donor.

Carter is currently in remission and comes for check-ups every two years.

He is now in second grade and enjoys riding his bike, playing soccer, swimming, repairing machines and going to school.

For more information about Carter’s story, visit Click here.

Now in its 15th year, the Kid Captain partnership between Stead Family Children’s Hospital and the Iowa Hawkeyes is an opportunity to celebrate children and their inspiring stories.

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