The Gift of Lights & Snow at Texas Motor Speedway had a special Grand Marshal to kick off this year’s holiday season November 21. Sam Fleming, 10, of Grapevine was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma cancer when he was four. But you’d never know it from his vivacious demeanor as he threw the switch to turn on more than two million LED lights at the Gift of Lights & Snow.

“I just want to be as normal as I can be,” said Sam as he hangs out with his eight-year-old brother Ben. “I don’t want to talk about treatment and all that.”

Sam has been through five rounds of chemotherapy, stem cell collections, radiation and currently travels to New York every eight weeks for painful immunotherapy treatments. Although Sam’s life is anything but normal, he remains in great spirits and recently joined baseball and basketball teams.

“Ben is Sam’s best medicine,” said Linda Fleming, Sam’s mother. “He plays with Sam and is right there with him for everything. Everyday for us is a huge Thanksgiving . We are thankful for all the people around us, especially our family and friends. And, of course, we’re very thankful Sam is here.”

Sam and Ben rode in the pace car with Santa Claus as they led the parade through the winding course under the grandstands at Texas Motor Speedway.

Visitors will experience more than 600 unique and exciting holiday displays across 1.7 miles at Texas Motor Speedway, 3545 Lone Star Circle, Fort Worth. Gift of Lights & Snow will run through January 5, 2014 with the addition of a unique new snow attraction this year. Snow Town features an outdoor tubing hill, snowball gallery and a play area created from 100 tons of real snow.

Gift of Lights & Snow benefits the Tarrant Area Food Bank, Goodwill Industries of North Texas and KLTY’s Christmas Wish.

Tickets are available online at www.giftoflightstms.com or at the TMS gate 8.

For more information visit, www.giftoflightstms.com or get updates via Facebook at www.facebook.com/GiftofLightsTexas.