It started with a limp. Doctors thought it was just a simple virus that Jack had picked up at daycare. But then they told his mother and father the terrible news that every parent fears
A mother has revealed how her healthy young son came home from childcare one day with a simple limp that led to a devastating cancer diagnosis.
Jaimee Thompson said her son Jack was “just like any other groundbreaking three-year-old” and loved dolphins, the color yellow and watching “old school” cartoons of Scooby Doo and The Smurfs.
The mother, from Freshwater on Sydney’s northern beaches, said there were no signs anything was wrong with Jack until he suddenly started limping in April 2023.
Jaimee and Jack’s father took him to the doctors to have the lameness and subsequent fever checked out, but they were told not to worry too much as there were no other symptoms.
“The doctors thought it was just a virus he caught at daycare, so he was given a few rounds of antibiotics and that probably lasted a few weeks,” Ms. Thompson told Yahoo News.
‘It was in the run-up to winter, a lot happened. A number of x-rays were taken and the doctors said not to worry.’
The couple took Jack home, but he did not improve in the following weeks, despite antibiotics.
Jack (pictured left) with his mother Jaimee, brother Ted and father Trent were diagnosed with neuroblastoma
His mother said she had no idea anything was wrong until Jack suddenly started limping
Mrs Thompson said one night she heard Jack screaming from his bed and went in to ask if he had had a nightmare, but he replied: ‘No, I’m hurting mum’.
She called an ambulance and Jack was admitted to hospital.
Ms. Thomspon said that just three weeks after she first noticed her limp, four doctors came into our room to tell us that our baby bear had stage IV cancer. Neuroblastoma’.
“While Jack had been playing, swimming, sleeping, laughing and giving ‘hugs’, his nerve cells had failed to mature properly, resulting in a tumor the size of a tangerine growing near his adrenal gland and kidney,” she said . GoFundMe.
‘From there it spread to the lymph nodes, bone marrow and his bones, from the top of his beautiful head to his toes.’
In May 2023, Jack began what his mother said was “one of the most grueling treatment protocols a child can endure.”
Jack spent six months in the hospital and underwent eight rounds of chemotherapy, an eight-hour surgery, a bone marrow transplant and twelve rounds of radiation.
He underwent six months of grueling hospital treatment, including chemotherapy and radiation
He is now recovering, but there is a 50 percent chance that the cancer will return
She said the ordeal left him with side effects, including loss of fine motor skills, impaired vision and infertility.
However, he has responded well to treatment and has been cleared of all but a few remaining cancer cells in his bone marrow.
The irrepressible toddler will now have to spend another six months in hospital for an immunotherapy treatment that aims to remove any remaining cancer cells.
‘Despite this success, the hard truth is that neuroblastoma has a 50 percent relapse rate. And if Jack relapses, his chances of survival drop to just 5 percent,” Ms. Thompson said.
There are currently two new therapies approved by the FDA in America that target neuroblastoma: DFMO and a bivalent vaccine.
They are the standard therapy in the United States and have been shown to halve the risk of relapse, but won’t be available in Australia for another two years.
According to the Children’s Cancer Institute, DFMO (diflouromethylornithine) works by limiting the ability of cancer cells to make the polyamines they need to grow and spread.
The bivalent vaccine trains the body’s immune system to recognize and eliminate cancer cells that may be lurking in the body after chemotherapy, according to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Ms Thompson has launched a GoFundMe asking for help in accessing ‘at least one of these medications’.
The couple asks for help to fund travel to the US for life-saving treatment – Jack with his brother Ted
“Your generosity will be used to cover the cost of medicines and other hospital supplies such as scans and bone marrow punctures, as well as flights to the US and accommodation while we are there,” Ms Thompson wrote.
Jack will have to follow the therapy for two years from mid-August, which will require six visits to the US.
“They say it takes a village to raise a child.” Thank you for being part of Jack Jack’s village. We can’t do this without you,” she said.