Thinkstock/Ryan McVay(PHOENIX) — An 8-year-old boy’s birthday wish to see an Amazon distribution center has been fulfilled.
Ben Bicknese loves shopping on the e-commerce site so much that he wanted to see where all the magic happens.
“He was just floored,” Ben’s mom Cecilia Bicknese of Tucson, Arizona, told ABC News. “There’s some pictures of his eyes popping out of his head. He was just stunned … he couldn’t believe he was there.”
Ben was diagnosed with Wilms tumor, a type of kidney cancer, in 2014 and had removal surgery that same year. The cancer returned in 2015, and he’s gone through chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
Because of Ben’s low immune system, doctors advised against him leaving the house. That’s when his grandparents bought him an iPad to keep him occupied.
“He was online all the time, so he’d shop and figured out what two-day shipping was with Amazon,” Bicknese said of her son. “Then he found the same-day shipping and that blew his mind. He was just obsessed with it. He loves getting packages. He’s just like me.”
Ben became intrigued as to how Amazon handles its customers’ requests and asked his family if he could see one of its fulfillment centers someday.
Bicknese said she reached out to a friend who knew an employee of the company. Amazon then invited the family to its shipping facility in Phoenix on Tuesday — just one day after Ben’s 8th birthday.
“We were incredibly touched by Ben’s story and we were honored to host him, his family and care network at one of our Amazon fulfillment centers in Phoenix for a special behind-the-scenes tour,” a representative of Amazon said in a statement to ABC News. “From his scavenger hunt picking birthday presents to learning how to use the tape machine, we had just as much fun as Ben did — maybe even more! … Ben is definitely an honorary Amazonian and we wish him all the best.”
Amazon also donated 50 Kindle e-readers, Fire tablet devices and $2,500 in content gift cards to Banner Medical Center, where Ben received his treatment in Tucson.
“It was a blessing,” Bicknese said. “It was a really good day for him after a lot of bad days.”
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