Among the Shadow Ridge community, there is a brave and true soul who battled a serious illness and won, senior, Austin Trueblood. When Trueblood was diagnosed with cancer, he was just 22 months old, too young to even form a single memory. It’s a story marked by early misdiagnosis, family resilience, and a remarkable journey through treatment that would shape the rest of his life.
In the months leading up to his diagnosis, Trueblood’s parents knew something was wrong. Their instincts were met with repeated reassurances from doctors who insisted it was just a bad ear infection. For six long months, that was the diagnosis, until they pushed for blood tests. The results were devastating: Trueblood had leukemia lymphoma, a serious form of blood cancer. Doctors warned that had he not been diagnosed at that precise moment, he may have had just two weeks left to live.
Treatment began immediately. Trueblood underwent intensive chemotherapy, multiple bone marrow transplants, and numerous blood transfusions. Though he remembers bits and pieces of that time, what stands out most to him today is not the physical pain, but what his family endured.
“What my parents went through personally,” Trueblood says, “it will never be understandable how much I owe to them.”
Watching their youngest child fight for his life, his parents made countless sacrifices, carrying the emotional and financial burden of his care without question.
Despite the grueling process, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Trueblood beat the odds and rang the bell signaling the end of his cancer treatment just before starting kindergarten. He only missed the first month of school and quickly returned to a relatively
normal routine, a miracle, considering the severity of his condition just a short time earlier.
Trueblood’s childhood was far from ordinary. While most kids feared shots and avoided hospitals, he found comfort in those places.
“I grew up in hospitals and had multiple extended stays there, so I’ve never been scared of needles,” he says. “It’s kind of humorous to see people freak out when they see their own blood.”
Today, Trueblood still remembers many of the doctors and nurses who cared for him. Their support, combined with his family’s unyielding strength, helped him survive one of the toughest battles life can offer, before he could even understand what was happening. His story is one of courage, sacrifice, and the extraordinary will to live.
