FRESNO, Calif.- Thursday night the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds will host "Tough Like Tristen Night" as the Men's Basketball team hosts Hawai'i Hilo at 7:30 p.m.

Tristen Graham is currently a 3^rd grader at Foothill Elementary School and is often scene on the bench at home games as a member of the FPU Men's Basketball Team.

"Tristen's been a source of great joy and inspiration since joining our team, and his family's resilience, toughness, and togetherness is an inspiration to everyone that knows them." Sunbird head coach CJ Haydock says. "It's a great joy to celebrate him on Thursday, to raise money for the organizations that supported him through a harrowing ordeal. We are confident our community will show up in full force, and celebrate a young man who's response to adversity is a model for all of us."

The Sunbirds will rally around Tristen prior to tip on Thursday night with a special presentation of the "Toughness Chair" and will help raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

In 2019, at age 4, Tristen was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). This diagnosis was a shock to his whole family, their lives were turned upside down.

Two days following, a central line was placed, and treatment was started. He continued treatment for two and a half years with a variety of chemotherapies.

In December 2021, Tristen rang the chemo-free bell and flew to Disney World with his family to celebrate.

Unfortunately, his story does not end there, in April of 2023, nine days before his 8th birthday the cancer came back.

The doctors gave the family the plan of action and it went into effect.

He was on the path for a Bone Marrow Transplant, started chemotherapies again and was also treated with immunotherapy funded and researched by the LLS.

On July 3rd he and his family moved up the Stanford Medical Hospital for his transplant.

Tristen's father, Tyler, was a donor and the transplant happened on July 13th.

Since his transplant he has been recovering and rebuilding his immune system.

Tyler played for Coach Haydock's first competitive basketball team, the first year of Coach's career.

Tyler also played for Coach McClurg and was a teammate of Coach Revis.

Those wishing to support can do so can give to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the organization that helped develop some of the medications used throughout Tristen's treatment.

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