Six-year-old Myles Pope, dubbed “Miracle Myles” for beating the odds of a life threatening disease, declares his favorite “cartoon” as VeggieTales® on TLC’s acclaimed While You Were Out reality show. The show featuring Myles and his family, titled Nashville: Miracle Myles & The Big Beautiful Basement, runs Sept. 29 at 9:00 p.m. ET and re-runs Sept. 30 at 12:00 a.m. ET.
Following Barry and Shawn Pope’s decision to sell their home to help pay for expensive hospital treatments for son Myles, the family of four moved into a basement living space. Prompted by Shawn’s sister, Beverly McManus, TLC’s While You Were Out was inspired to complete an ambitious remodeling of the Pope’s entire basement.
Taped earlier this year, the remodeling included a brand new couch won for the Popes by McManus answering a question correctly. “When they asked me what was Myles’s favorite cartoon, I knew immediately it was VeggieTales,” said McMannus who spontaneously began singing the VeggieTales theme song on camera in a lighthearted moment with show host Evan Farmer.
“We were completely taken off guard by this wonderful thing that has happened to us,” says Shawn Pope. “We have been not only blessed by Myles’ miraculous recovery, but also with a comfortable living space and even a brand new DVD player, courtesy of TLC’s While You Were Out, for us all to watch the new VeggieTales.”
Big Idea recently invited the Pope’s to their corporate headquarters at The Factory in Franklin, TN to present Myles with the brand new VeggieTales: Sumo of the Opera DVD and other goodies from Big Idea, as well as introduce him to Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber. “We were all moved by his story,” says Mike Nawrocki, VeggieTales co-creator and voice of Larry the Cucumber, “It was such a delight to meet Myles and his family.”
Having a spinal arteriovenous malformation (spinal AVM), which is a malformation of the arteries and veins in the spinal chord at the base of the brain stem, Myles had an aneurysm when he was three. Doctors told the Pope’s that Myles would die within a year and that the mass in the base of his spinal chord was inoperable. When he was first hospitalized, he had lost all function in his legs and arms. “Even then, while still in the hospital, Myles asked to pray for other kids who he heard crying, and did so on occasions,” remembers McManus.
Myles’ parents didn’t give up on a cure, and through prayer and discovery, found a surgeon in Atlanta who was willing to operate. The surgeon in March 2001 warned that the surgery would most likely either kill Myles or leave him paralyzed from the neck down. Myles, now in the first grade at a Franklin, TN school, is indistinguishable from any other child, unless you look closely under his collar to see the scar where surgeons removed the offending tissue.
