Despite how it began, Will Turpin’s experience as a student at Jackson High School has been anything but typical. With a passion for football and a drive for learning, Will, a JHS junior, was excited for his upcoming senior year. Then the unthinkable happened. A newly rebuilt football team with hopes for a record breaking season and extensive studying for his six AP exams was all put on hold when Will was suddenly diagnosed with leukemia. 

“Last April, Will started complaining about a tooth bothering him,” shares his mom, Jamie. “We figured it was likely his wisdom teeth, so we made an appointment to get him in for surgery.” A wisdom teeth surgery is fairly normal for kids at Will’s age, so there was no reason to worry. Once the surgery was completed, Will’s grandmother took him home to recover but soon noticed that his bleeding was continuing longer than normal. “She called me at work and told me she was taking him back to the surgeon. She said it wasn’t crazy, but didn’t seem normal,” Jamie explained. The doctor that met them agreed and quickly ordered a blood test to make sure everything was okay. With a few hours to wait for results, Will and his grandma returned home with the doctor promising to call as soon as they got them. “He called us that night and told us to take him straight to the ER,” said Jamie. 

The results they had found were extremely concerning, so Jamie quickly took Will to Swedish Hospital, the closest ER she knew of. After doctors ran a few more tests, Jamie started to hear the word “leukemia” for the first time. Will was soon transported to Seattle Children’s Hospital via ambulance, where he spent several days recovering in the ICU before beginning treatment. 

The particular type of leukemia Will had, Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL), presents with bleeding you can’t get under control, which explains the continuous bleeding from Will’s wisdom teeth surgery. Luckily, while APL was once one of the most fatal types of leukemia, it has become one of the most curable within the last fifteen years. 

While Will’s prognosis was good, he still had a long road to recovery. “In the very beginning, we spent about 14 days living at Children’s while he stabilized,” says Jamie. “When we finally went home, it felt like we had a newborn again going through that first month.” Will’s treatment lasted about 8 months, through which he had to go in for treatment every single day. 

“There are pros and cons to everything,” says Jamie. “You have to find the silver linings. Even though we had to go in every day, the treatments were pretty tolerable for Will. I was also very fortunate to have a flexible work schedule, friends and family to help, and a lot of time I got to spend with Will. The hardest part through all of it was knowing he wouldn’t be able to play his senior year of football. You never get your senior year back, so that was heartbreaking, but his team all came together to support him.” 

Jackson High School football coach, Mason Siddick, was a huge part of this. Coach Siddick rebuilt the school’s football program through a difficult transition into a record-breaking team. Even though Will wasn’t able to play on his JHS team this year, Siddick was able to make a referral to Cleats vs. Cancer, a Washington-based high school All-Star game featuring many of the state’s most outstanding senior football players. The program was started in 2018 by Derek Sparks, a Washington State University football player whose daughter also fought leukemia in 2018. The proceeds go to benefit children and families battling cancer. Having completed his last of eight APL treatments just before Christmas, Will got to play in their 2025 game in January, along with two other Jackson High School players, Cole Truant and Samba Mbaye.

Now that he is in remission, Will and his family are looking forward to having some normalcy back. With college applications in the works, Will is hoping to be accepted to the University of Washington or Oregon State University to study engineering, like his dad, Troy, an engineer. Having been involved with the student program (ACE) Architecture, Construction & Engineering, Will has enjoyed learning from guest engineers and exploring a variety of projects like the new Seattle Waterfront Park. 

As his mom, Jamie is excited to see where Will’s passions and experiences take him as he learns. “When you go to Seattle Children’s Hospital every day and see what all these kids are going through, it changes you," she says. "I know he’s thinking about ways to give back, and maybe someday, that will be in an engineering way, too. Who knows!”