Meet Jake
Melissa shared her son’s story with us in April 2021 to spread awareness during Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Awareness Week. Approximately 89,000 young adults (ages 15-39) are diagnosed with cancer each year in the United States.
Pictured: Jake before his diagnosis.
My son, Jake, was 16 when he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma.
We thought he twisted his knee doing the shotput during a track meet but it turned out to be a large tumor. Over the next several weeks, he went through chemo , had his femur removed, had a metal bar inserted, and continued with chemo. He was very sick but after eight months it seemed they got the cancer. Until it came back in his lungs 3 months later.
He would have more rounds of chemotherapy and surgeries to remove it from his lungs. Through all that, he was still able to go to prom, go to his football games, and graduate high school with the help of his support system.
The cancer in his lungs came back another time and was removed before he left for college. He was in college for three weeks when he was having a pain in his leg and came home. The cancer had come back. This time they would need to amputate his leg.
He was ready for the amputation and knew it was just another blip in his cancer journey. But the morning of the surgery, they took an x-ray of his chest to make sure he was healthy enough to be put under. They found that his lungs were riddled with tumors. The doctors came in and told us he only had 3 to 6 months to live.
Jake wanted to make those last days memorable. He put together a bucket list and tried to accomplish as many things on it as possible.
Pictured: Jake with his sister, shortly before he passed away.
He went to the Super Bowl.
He saw all kinds of unusual animals.
He got his first kiss,
He went up to Maine to see the ocean one last time.
Unfortunately, the 3 to 6 months only lasted six weeks. And Jake was gone.
In those last six weeks he had his sister and I plan how we were going to help others. The three of us came up with Jake’s Team as a way to help other kids and adolescents battling cancer. Jake didn’t want anybody else to go through what he did.
The thing about Jake was: He always had a smile. His laugh was infectious. He never said ‘why me?’
He was strong, determined, and never once - even in the end - thought this would take him. Osteosarcoma is a horrible disease and when it’s as bad as how Jake had it, it usually takes the kids much sooner.
Jake’s positive attitude I think helped him stay with us for three years.