SEATTLE -- Tiago Viernes walked across the MLB Draft stage on Sunday evening to announce the Mariners’ first-round selection, Colt Emerson, and maybe the 9-year-old will be back here in another decade or so hearing his own name called.

Viernes was invited by the Mariners to take center stage ahead of the organization’s most monumental Draft in recent memory, in huge part, because his story is so inspiring.

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Viernes overcame life-threatening Stage 4 neuroblastoma when he was just 2 years old. His family relocated from Wapato, Wash., about two-and-a-half hours from T-Mobile Park, so that he could get treatment from Seattle Children’s Hospital.

According to SCH, Viernes’ body was filled with cancer cells, and he was near death before 18 months of intense treatment that included chemotherapy, surgery, two stem-cell transplants, radiation treatment and immunotherapy. Now, he not only has been cancer free for the past six years, but he’s an active participant in an array of youth sports -- including baseball.

In February, Viernes received the Wayne Gittinger Inspirational Youth Award presented by Seattle Children’s, an award that was presented by Ken Griffey Jr. At last year’s All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium, Julio Rodríguez wrote Viernes’ name on a Stand Up To Cancer card as he was introduced. And earlier this season, Viernes threw out the ceremonial first pitch ahead of a Mariners game.