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Making Your Mark: Local Grad Who Overcame Leukemia Represents Childhood Cancer Foundation

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HelenAir.com

6/14/2015

The summer after Austin Dunlap’s seventh grade year at East Valley Middle School, he was plagued by sickness and stomach pain.

The symptoms subsided in time for him to ride steer and team rope in the East Helena Rodeo, but when they cropped back up after the event, Austin’s pediatrician knew it was more than the mono he first suspected.

On Aug. 11, 2010, Austin was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia.

“When Austin was diagnosed, we kind of thought we were the first family in Montana to have a child diagnosed with cancer, but when time went on, he wasn’t,” Austin’s mom, Valerie, said.

Austin is now in remission, and the Dunlap family was recently chosen by Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation to serve as Montana representatives and spread the word about childhood cancer.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation was launched in honor of Alexandra Scott, who died in 2004 at age 8 after a battle with cancer. When she wasn’t in the hospital, Alex started a lemonade stand to raise money that could help other kids like her, the foundation’s website says.

ALSF now raises money for and awareness of childhood cancer around the nation.

“There’s a lot of teen and pediatric cancer in Helena,” Valeria said.

“You just don’t hear about it until you’re in the same situation,” Austin added.

When he first found out about the cancer, Austin’s thoughts went straight to his friends. What would they think? How would they react?

He decided to stay close to home and undergo treatment in Montana, where he could be near his friends and family.

Before being diagnosed, Austin competed in rodeos and wrestled, but he couldn’t continue with the sports while undergoing treatment.

“Growing up with those sports, it had been a big part of my life. Just not being able to be there for my teammates to see it happen was kind of tough,” Austin said.

When he was a sophomore at Helena High nearly three years after the initial diagnosis, Austin went into remission.

He was healthy through the summer and able to start wrestling in the fall. On the opening day of hunting season his junior year, Austin was a passenger in a truck involved in a wreck. 

The concussion he suffered from that accident kept him home and resting. While relaxing around the house in November 2013, his nose started to bleed. Having dealt with nosebleeds for much of his life, Austin thought nothing of it. But then it didn’t stop for half an hour.

He called his mom, who went home and took Austin to the emergency room.

A blood test revealed Austin had a low platelet count and high count of white blood cells, both signs of leukemia. His acute lymphocytic leukemia had relapsed.

After a month of treatment in Montana, Austin needed to travel to Seattle to undergo testing so the hospital could search for a potential donor for a bone marrow transplant.

East Helenans and Helenans had stepped up and bought wristbands, window stickers and T-shirts and written checks to help pay for Austin’s medical bills in town. Strapped for the cash needing to travel to Seattle, Valerie searched for funding online, and that’s when she found Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.

The foundation gave the family money that covered two plane tickets and a hotel during the initial trip to Seattle.

“We weren’t even on our feet again from his previous diagnosis, so it was extremely helpful,” Valerie said.

The Seattle hospital was able to identify a donor in little time, and in January 2014, the Dunlaps were on their way back to Seattle.

The Helena-based Go for the Gold, which raises money for families who have a child battling cancer, paid for a condo to house the Dunlaps during Austin’s five-month stint in Seattle following his successful bone marrow transplant.

Now back in Helena, Valerie said the family is still recovering from its exhausting journey over of the last several years. During Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in September, the Dunlaps will likely help the Go for the Gold Foundation put on fundraisers. At some point, Valerie said, she hopes to get more involved in efforts to support childhood cancer treatment and awareness initiatives, but with only a year passed since Austin’s remission, she needs more time.

For now she helps out how she can, like selling Crocs in the front entryway to her salon, the proceeds from which benefit Go for the Gold.

Last Saturday, Austin graduated from Helena High. He plans to attend Helena College in the fall to knock out some core classes. Eventually, he hopes to attend a four-year college and pursue an engineering degree.

He can’t be around much dust, because of a common fungus that could trigger a reaction, and his immune system functions at only about 50 percent of a typical 18-year-old’s.

But that won’t stop him.

“Live each day as much as you can,” Austin said. “Keep your friends close.”