Union Mine Teen Excelling, Thankful For Shriner’s Hospital

April 24, 2012 5:41 PM

Hunter Cannon, who lost his left leg when he was 6, plays football at Union Mine High School in Placerville. (credit: CBS13)

PLACERVILLE (CBS13) – Meet Hunter Cannon, a typical teenager at Union Mine High School in Placerville.

“I play football, I do baseball or used to. I wrestle too,” he says.

With all his athletic capabilities, you’d never know that he suffered a life-changing accident at 6 years old that left him at Shriner’s Hospital for months. And it all began as simple ride on the back of a lawnmower.

“I slipped off the back of a lawnmower with my dad driving it and he backed up and cut my foot off,” Hunter explains.

“I was able to flip the mower off of him and gather him up and start dealing with the trauma,” Ron Cannon says.

But it was too late. Hunter was rushed to UC Davis Medical Center where he lost his lower leg. Weeks later he was taken to Shriner’s for treatment and to be fitted with his new prosthetic leg.

For Hunter, Shriner’s gave him his life back.

“It’s awesome. They help so much. They gave me this leg,” he says.

And years later, Shriner’s is still helping Hunter because playing center and nose guard on the Union Mine football team means his prosthetic leg takes a beating.

“During football season we’re make it about every other game and then we have to come in and say ‘The foot’s broken again,’ so we swap it out,” his mother Tami says.

And nothing is stopping him now.

“I don’t even think of him as a disabled person because he does everything that every other child could do,” she says.

And for the Cannon family, they can’t thank Shriner’s enough.

“It’s all about putting the best foot forward, for lack of a better word, and making it possible to do the things that everyday people do,” Ron says.