Jackson was an amazing soccer player. Since he was 2 years old his passions were soccer, dinosaurs, and cooking with his family.
Fast forward to the end of an amazing freshman year at Corona Del Sol, (June 2023) Jackson was experiencing back pain. His mom’s gut instincts kicked in and brought him to Phoenix Children’s. Within hours he was spun around into a hospital gown, being poked, prodded, scanned, and in pain. A couple of long scary days later, they were told their son had Metastatic Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma. The chances of him living longer than 5 years were grim. They fought back and Jackson was NED and seemingly unscathed by the awful chemo. He’s too strong for that. Right before he was to finish his last cycle in March 2024 his scans showed he relapsed. They changed courses with treatment at PCH and dove right into a Germany trial. They struggled to raise the first payment $26k, but made it! WOW! They drained every account they had and still had to raise more to reach $86k. But they would do anything. Germany trial was supported by PCH and Mayo Clinic.
Jackson struggled with side effects of this new chemo he was receiving at PCH, but he wanted to continue as we waited for Germany to formulate his vaccines.
His MAKE A WISH was granted to go to Hawaii in June. The family went. Sadly Jackson instantly started to decline when they arrived in Hawaii. He lost the use of his left arm, felt so sick and weak. They ended up in the ER in Oahu. Blood transfusions, scans, and doctors in a new hospital was scary.
Once they got home to Arizona, they went straight to PCH. After more scans, his diagnosis worsened to the worst word we would ever hear. Incurable. Germany said it was too late to receive the vaccines.
Leptomeningeal disease. Spine and surrounding his brain. He was told he had weeks to months left.
He had whole brain radiation at Mayo and continues chemo. His recent scans showed some improvement.
They struggle emotionally to make the right choices with him. We are exploring a wellness clinic in Mexico that provides some of the same treatment Germany was offering. The cost we are trying to raise is $40k. Jackson’s mom has to be off work from American Airlines where she has worked for 27 years with no pay. But she won’t stop fighting for her family.
