Olivia Trueb lives every teenage girl’s dream. As in, she’s got a team of professional football players that are wrapped around her finger, and much to her surprise, she can thank her Common Variable Immune Deficiency (CVID) diagnosis for it.
CVID, Trueb explains through her post on the popular arena football site ArenaFan, means that when she’s sick, her risk of dying is relatively high due to her body’s inability to “fight off the infections and bad bacteria.” Currently, there is no cure for CVID. On the bright side, treatments have been discovered and developed over the years due to the increase of awareness and focus on the rare condition. Trueb herself has to take a concentration of blood that is the equivalent of a whopping 40,000 blood donations!
And for a girl who used to believe athletes were “stuck up”, the arena football team in Portland, Oregon the Portland Thunder completely changed her mind.
Based on their introduction video, the Portland Thunder seem like a pretty awesome group of guys.
She first met the Thunder through the Children’s Cancer Association at a community event. However, Trueb described in her post that she was the only patient who showed up. Could you imagine? A 16 year-old standing in a room with 20 large intimidating men, but their reaction put her at ease. The grouped all played a bunch of fun games that were a part of the event, Trueb obviously was the victor as she writes, “Of course I won the majority of the games, though if that was due to them allowing me to or my own skills has yet to be discovered.”
By the end of the day, this little girl with CVID had gained a whole new appreciation for the players of the gridiron.
“I realize one of the reasons they play the game, aside from the love and respect they have for such an amazing sport, is how it feels to stand in the middle of an arena full of fans,” she said. “It’s exhilarating.”
As of today, the Thunder aren’t the only ones showing appreciation. Trueb bakes the entire team 10 dozens of cookies each and every week. She attends practices, does the coin toss, which has earned her weekly hospital visits from team members.
With the help of her new friends, CVID will be the last thing to hold her back. Her life completely changed when she met the Thunder and Trueb is flattered that she means quite a bit to the players. And words can’t described just how much they mean to her.
Take a look at Olivia Trueb’s full post about her experience with these intimidating teddy bears in the full length article on ArenaFan.
We can all agree Olivia’s story is adorable, so why not share the smile giving and heart-warming story to a friend. Choose your favorite social network below and share away!
