Hey all!
First off … I am sorry … I tried so hard to keep up with my blogging … and now I am more behind than ever! But that stops now and I am dedicated to continuing on with my blogging! 3 times a week for until September I hope
Now to the important stuff: meet Dustin Seib.
On my blog you see him as an awesome young guy from Battleford, Saskatchewan, who is a crazy awesome mountain biker, has a truck with a killer stereo system, and just graduated high school with all of his friends – out into a world of possibility and opportunity.
But I’ve known Dustin in a way for many years and am proud to call him and his family friends. And to me, Dustin is a hero.
To hear his amazing story and see the awesome smile he now has on his face, hit the link:
I met Dustin and his family as I was volunteering on the Pediatrics ward at Royal University Hospital, visiting sick kids ages 4-18 doing whatever I could to help them have a little smile during whatever dark and difficult situations them and their families are currently facing. Dustin came into the Hospital during his grade 9 year, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and was in and out of the hospital for the next 2 years, over which I shared a small part of this journey with his family. Over that time he was diagnosed with a rare sub-type of leukemia called Philadelphia Positive, which required that he undergo a bone marrow transplant from his older sister.
Our last meeting was in the Pediatrics Intensive Care Unit. For the last 3 months his liver was being hit from a autoimmune disease, his lungs were in rough shape, he was down to 76 lbs, was on continuous oxygen and a feeding tube, and couldn’t walk. The doctors said he probably would never be able to mountain bike again. Yet I remember how he somehow mustered a smile when I came into that room.
But here he is with his family infront of me, looking great after an amazing recovery at the children’s hospital in Winnipeg, just recently got back from an amazing heli-mountain biking trip in Whistler, is graduating with his friends despite having missed 2 years of school, and still smiling at me with the same determination and and embrace of life that beamed from his even during the amazingly difficult times that I doubt I would have been able to take myself. It is an honor to be able to call you amazing people my friend - just by sharing a little bit of your journey, you have taught me so much about life. Oh, and next time you are going quadding through 4 feet of mud with with chipped 700′s, you should call me
I look at these pictures and this is the guy I saw the whole time in the hospital. He looked different then, but this same contagious spirit of adventure that runs through him to his core that you can see here in his eyes was always there the whole time. In my eyes, he is a real hero.
~
Justin
