Dolly Parton surprises terminally ill fan to fulfil his bucket list wish

In order to keep up his spirits whilst battling the illness, Gold wrote out some of his biggest desires. His illness spread to his lymph nodes and liver, and in September, he was given a prognosis of less than six months to live due to liver failure. Number seven on the list was to meet Dolly Parton, and with a surprise phone call just before Christmas, she has been able to lift his spirits.

Speaking to KSL, a local NBC affiliate, Gold showed his "list of living" and said, “one of them was ‘meet Dolly Parton,’” he said. “I thought, ‘Well, it’s never going to happen'...She sang me a song, put my name in the song,” he added. “I feel like I’m immortal now.”

“I’m just happy to know I’ve got a fan that devoted and that I’ve had a chance to walk that journey all these years. I heard you’ve been a fan of mine for many years, and I just want to thank you for that," said Parton. “I’m just happy that we got to kind of have our journey together in this lifetime. I always want to make people happy with my music and with the things I do and the things I say and I’m just happy to know that I’ve touched your life in some way. So thank you for honouring me with that.”

She also sang a snippet of "I Will Always Love You", and changed the lyric to include his nickname, 'LG'.