By Erin Wood
“The book is a love story to the town that made me,” says debut author and Nashville, AR, native Kaden Peebles regarding the July 11 release of her book One True Scrapper: A Memoir of Childhood Cancer, Good Eyeliner, and a Fighting Spirit from Et Alia Press. “I hope it will help others fighting cancer or facing challenges of any kind.”
Soon Peebles will begin her second year of law school at Oklahoma City University College of Law, but the timeline of her memoir spans the nearly seven years she fought three cancers.
As a cheerleader for The Nashville Scrappers beginning her junior year of high school, Peebles nursed an annoying pain in her hip with ibuprofen. What was first explained away and treated as a sports injury continued to escalate until a scan revealed the worst-case scenario: a malignant tumor. Plunged into the world of hospitals, port placement, chemo, needles, blood counts, and the delicate balance of killing cancer while not dying, Kaden shifted into her new identity as a 17-year-old with cancer.
Nearly 7 years of fighting cancer, 35 rounds of chemo, 40 radiation sessions, 2 bone marrow transplants, and more than 180 blood transfusions later – and having witnessed the deaths of numerous children fighting cancer alongside her – Kaden’s book reflects on how her relentless charge to survive cancer with her family, healthcare team, and community by her side has shaped her young life, guided by the belief that what might take her body could never defeat her spirit.
Signed copies of the book are available through etaliapress.com and unsigned copies are available through local and national retailers.
Hot Springs native, Erin Wood is a writer, editor, and publisher in Little Rock. She owns and runs (www.etaliapress.com). Wood is author of “Women Make Arkansas: Conversations With 50 Creatives” (April 2019) and editor of and a contributor to “Scars: An Anthology” (2015).
