Jordan's Story

A month after Jordan started high school he became unwell. Very high temperatures and stiff joints. He also had an all over red body rash.

We were back and forth to hospital but the doctors didn’t know why he was so unwell.

We were transferred to Alder Hey and he started fitting and was ventilated in ITU. No one seemed to know what was the cause of his symptoms.

We spent 4 months in total in hospital .. after 3.5 months we had an answer - HLH .. a rare blood disease. Jordan started high dose steroids and chemotherapy straight away. He went through so much.. he was unable to walk and had a perforated bowel.

Eventually he went into remission and had 10 months before he relapsed. This time the only option was a bone marrow transplant which he had at 13yrs from his sister who was 16. After the BMT he was so poorly but we were hopeful he would get better and a year later he was back to his funny, larger than life, kind self.

Unfortunately during a family holiday at 17 his rash returned and he started having shoulder pain. The consultants thought his HLH had come back so treatment started again. Unfortunately after a scan it was found he had a mass on his ribs. It turned out to be a secondary cancer due to previous harsh treatments! Out lives fell apart again and treatment started.

Throughout everything Jordan kept positive always thinking if others before himself and he always had a smile. He suffered so much during the next 15 months.. harsh chemo, 10 hours of surgery to remove 4 ribs and we even went out to America for Proton Beam Treatment for 9weeks. We were always hopeful and looked to the future and planned so much ..

unfortunately that was not to be. Our lives were ripped apart and our hearts broken forever when our beautiful brave boy was taken from us just 4 months after he completed treatment, aged 18.

As a family we needed a purpose and to ensure Jordan would never be forgotten so we set up a charity “Giddos Gift” in Jordan’s memory helping others battling cancer.

Jordan’s nickname was Giddo, he loved giving gifts and he was a gift to us!

We know first hand how difficult it is carrying on without a child and setting up a charity so we really admire Tom and Jo for the fantastic work they do for their sons charity “ The Ben Saunders Foundation” we are so grateful for this opportunity to visit the Cotswolds especially as it is Jordan’s sister birthday!