Following a 5-year battle, a little boy who captured the hearts of so many in the community succumbed to cancer Friday morning.

The family of Nathen Trueblood, 7, released a short statement via his Facebook support page, Prayers4Nathen, shortly before 8 a.m.:

"9:46 a.m. California time Nathen was forever cured. After a 5-year battle he is now joined with all of his friends who were taken much too soon."

Nathen, originally from Moore, was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer often striking small children. In the past five years, he underwent 25 rounds of chemotherapy and five brain surgeries and had his gallbladder and appendix removed, along with countless other surgeries and procedures.

The family moved to Los Angeles in January 2012 so that Nathen could receive specialized treatment. Those diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma are usually given a 50/50 chance of survival. The move had resulted in progress over the course of the year, but by early November things took a turn for the worse. An emergency CT scan showed that Nathen's brain was bleeding and his tumor had grown to take up  of the left side of his brain and four smaller tumors were growing on his spine.

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