Jake's Story

Jake's journey with cancer began in May 2024 when he was 7. We were on holiday in Scotland and he developed a limp which we thought was a football injury. It didn't improve at all during the holiday but Jake continued to play football, run around, go rock pooling, nothing slowed him down.

The day we returned from holiday we made an appointment for Jake to visit his GP the next day. The GP was concerned that there was a slight swelling in his left leg so he was sent for an xray. We will never forget the phone call asking us to come back to the surgery, we knew something was terribly wrong and that it was more than a football injury. The shock of being told that Jake's fibula was fractured and that there was a solid mass in his bone that they suspected to be cancer will never leave us.

From there it was a whirlwind of tests at Alder Hey, bloods, MRI, CT's and 2 weeks later he was in Birmingham Children's Hospital for a biopsy. It took 4 weeks to get a full diagnosis of Ewing's Sarcoma, those 4 weeks felt like a lifetime.

On 5th July he had a central line and gastrostomy PEG fitted and on the 9th July his chemotherapy started. We went into hospital as parents and came out as carers and the active, social, fun loving boy we knew was a shadow of his former self.

The chemotherapy protocol was brutal, the blood and platelet transfusions relentless and the ad hoc hospital stays were frequent. In December Jake had major surgery in Birmingham for the removal of the tumour and his fibula, we got him home on 23rd December, just in time for Christmas.

Not once during this whole period has Jake ever asked "why him?" He has never felt sorry for himself and has battled all the way. Jake finished his last Chemotherapy on 10th March this year and he is 6 months post surgery.

He has embraced his return to what is his new normal with such passion that we couldn't be prouder of him.

He's back in school full time, back to swimming, riding his bike, playing with his friends whilst still working on his recovery for his leg. He has a way to go before he is back to full strength but we have no doubt he will do it!

In June he took part in Kids Pretty Muddy and raised over £1300 for cancer research.

Being gifted a break like this from Bens foundation means everything to our family, seeing Jake and his younger brother Josh playing together and having fun warms our hearts.

Thank you so very much. Nicola, Sean, Jake "the hulk" and Josh.