Bellevue Survivor, Now a Teen, Embraces Her Future

If anyone knows about adversity, it’s Hannah Kunkel of Bellevue. The 18-year-old, who just graduated from Northgate High, was supposed to be dead at age 5.

When she was in kindergarten, doctors at Children’s Hospital told her parents she had a rare brain tumor that had killed every child who got it. I documented Hannah’s case extensively in the pages of this newspaper, from her radiation treatments and MRIs to the infections, close calls and days in which prayer seemed to be the only way out.

The fact that she’s alive isn’t lost on Hannah, who’s no longer the little girl who tripped on the IV pole while running in the hospital hallway and played doctor in a Children’s playroom.

Read more on the Tribune-Review website.

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