He was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia when he was an 11-year-old sixth grader at Braxton Craven School. Following treatment and recovery, Austin lived life to the fullest.
“He played football, wrestled and played baseball,” said Todd Gibson, who was Austin’s football coach at Archdale-Trinity Middle School. “He’s a good athlete with tremendous heart. He was named male athlete of the year when he was in eighth grade.”
The 2008 Trinity graduate is now a student at Guilford Technical Community College. At 19, he still lives life to the fullest, doing a little bullriding and coaching youth football.
But his life has changed again.
Recently, he developed a persistent headache, which led to a devastating diagnosis. Tanya Gibson, a family friend, was with Austin when he got the news Oct. 17 that leukemia had returned. This time it was in his spinal column.
As Austin began to fight the cancer with chemotherapy at Brenner Children’s Hospital, “Team Austin” prepared to fight.
Gibson and another family friend, Gina Brown, organized a last-minute organizational meeting Oct. 27 at Carter Brothers in Archdale. With e-mails and telephone calls, they had hoped 15 people would show up and agree to help set up and man a bone marrow drive.
As 37 people filed in to join the team, Gibson and Brown were overwhelmed by the show of support. Some knew Austin, others did not. They only knew that Reddick needed their help.
“It doesn’t happen very often that 37 people will drop everything and show up at the drop of a hat to help someone else out,” Brown said. “But this community is wonderful. No matter how many highways, businesses and homes that are built, the people here continue to love and support each other.”
Gibson, who is a nurse, explained that Austin is getting a 30-day regimen of chemotherapy. When his blood count comes back up, then he will receive another round of chemotherapy.
If doctors determine that Austin needs a bone marrow transplant, his life will depend on the community’s response to participate in a bone marrow registry.
Betsie Letterle of Be The Match national bone marrow program attended the meeting to give the team facts about bone marrow donation.
“The donor does not pay for anything,” Letterle said. “Potential donors, who must be between the ages of 18 and 60, will register by swabbing their cheeks with cotton swabs.”
It takes 12 weeks to type potential donors, which is why the team wanted to have the drive as quickly as possible. Donors must be in good health, and willing to donate to any patient in need. About 1 in 200 candidates are successful matches.
Team Austin has another strategy — “We fight on our knees.” Members of Prospect United Methodist Church will furnish refreshments at the donor registry drive, but that’s not all. They are praying for Austin, as are other area faith groups.
Kerry Jean Friend, youth pastor of Springfield Friends Meeting, is recovering from a bone marrow transplant Sept. 25.
Two bone marrow registry drives were held for Friend — one in High Point and one in her hometown of Leesburg, Ohio. The drives generated 615 registries, in addition to those who registered online.
Besides new registrations, the drives raised more than $13,000 for the bone marrow foundation. That money is used to help with unforeseen expenses for both the donor and the recipient along with information and publicity.
Right now, Friend is in the recovery phase, said her mother, Nellda Friend.
“Her counts are up,” Nellda said of her daughter, “and with her own patience and efforts to eat and exercise, her strength will come up. Kerry Jean’s donor may not have not come from her drive, but could have been found someone’s drive.”
Nellda added that donors are especially needed from the African American, Mexican and any other minority group.
For more information about Team Austin, contact Tanya Gibson at 870-0142 or Gina Brown, 442-2815.
BeTheMatch.org
The Austin Reddick Bone Marrow Drive will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8, at Fairfield United Methodist Church, 1505 N.C. Hwy. 62.
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