DENVER — The journey back to recover begins with a single step, something that seemed almost unattainable two years ago when cross country runner Noble Haskell was in a car accident that injured his spinal cord and rendered him a quadriplegic. But both Noble and his mom Krisi knew it wasn't just possible for him to walk across the stage at his high school graduation, it would happen.
"So to think about where he was two years ago, and to see him walk today, really was a miracle and it wasn't just a big miracle, it was a hundred miracles along the way," Krisi Hantke said.
To call this moment a miracle would minimize the amount of work it took for Noble to have his moment in the spotlight.
"It's hard to see the progress day by day, but then when you start to look back, you see the huge strides we've taken with things like my walking, things like my balance, and just things like being able to stand up for periods of time," Noble said. "To be able to get here, took a lot of hard work."
"Words can't really express because it's the humility and grace that he's given every day, the absolute grit and determination and the relentless faith," Krisi added. "It's been excruciating, it really has."
But the goal was never just to get to graduation, it was always one simple phrase: Noble will run again.
"Keep doing what I need to do and keep fighting day by day, session by session, week by week, until I'm eventually back to running again," Noble said. "It took everything I've got to get here but like I said, job's not finished and I still got more to go and this is just the beginning."
"I knew that he would walk again I knew that he would run and I think that's what faith has been for us, that belief when you can't see it, just the relentless going after it and belief that he's going to do it -- and he did," she said.
The family is hosting a 5K Walk/Run to raise funds for continued therapy on Saturday June 10 at 7am on the Smoky Hill High School track. The cost is $5 to run with additional donations accepted. All funds will go directly to Noble's therapy to run again.