Jack, a five-year-old boy, has only a 5% chance of survival today. His mother says it all started a few weeks earlier, after she noticed he was limping when he came home from school.
It just goes to show that mothers have an eye. Jack, a 5-year-old boy who was previously “happy and healthy”, now has only a 5% chance of survival. His mother, Sarah, told her story in the columns of Sun. In January 2024, the latter noticed for the first time that her son was having difficulty walking. “I noticed Jack was limping when I picked him up from school.”, she remembers. The young boy then began to complain of pain in his legs. His mother ended up taking him to see a general practitioner.
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“I took him to the doctor twice, who told me it was probably a viral infection irritating the hip and it should get better”relates the mother. “But at the end of January the pain got worse and I took him to the emergency room two days in a row.”she adds. “The first time they told me everything was fine and to just give him ibuprofen. But on the second visit he had a blood test and then we were sent to another hospital for examinations and scans”Sarah continues.
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“Our lives changed instantly”
Two doctor visits and two emergency department appointments later, Jack was immediately rushed to Children’s Hospital in Bristol, UK, not far from where the toddler and his family live. It was there, completely distraught, that Sarah, her husband and their loved ones learned that he was in fact suffering from a stage 4 neuroblastoma. “On February 1, an MRI revealed a tumor above his right kidney”regrets the mother. “Our lives changed instantly.”
This is a pediatric cancer relatively rare that develops in the nervous tissues of infants and young children (usually under 5 years of age), most often in the adrenal glands, located above the kidneys. This type of cancer can also form in other parts of the sympathetic nervous system, such as the neck, chest, abdomen, or pelvis. It can then spread quickly. Symptoms may include an abdominal mass, pain, loss of appetite, bone pain, fever, fatigue, bruising, or changes in the eyes.
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“We are devastated”
Since the sad news was announced, Sarah has been going to the hospital every week so that Jack can receive chemotherapy and radiotherapy sessions. Soon he will have surgery to remove the tumor. He will also need a stem cell transplant, a total of 18 months of treatment. If successful, the chances of survival are 40 to 50%, but in the event of a relapse, they are only 5%. According to the medical staff in charge of Jack, the boy presents a “high risk” of relapse. “We are devastated”she confides.
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Sarah wants to give her son the best possible chance. She therefore hopes to raise 250,000 pounds sterling (nearly 300,000 euros) for treatment which is not available in the United Kingdom. This option, which would involve multiple trips to the United States, would still reduce the risk of relapse and give Jack a better chance of survival if his cancer returns. “Our beautiful boy was a happy, healthy 5-year-old who moved around normally without worrying about anything. He deserves to live a happy, healthy, long life.”she concluded with emotion.
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Rights of women and children, violence, feminism, gender, discrimination, parenthood, education, psychology, health, couple, sexuality, social networks…. Joséphine loves deciphering all the social issues that drive our world…
