Jackson’s Story
Jackson is one of over 600 Australian children who are diagnosed with cancer every year. Just like many of these children, Jackson has spent the majority of his short life in hospital fighting the horrible disease.
Jackson’s Story begins with a suspected stomach bug when he was just 7 months old. Two different GPs brushed it off as a virus but Jackson’s mum Michelle remained concerned when his stomach seemed swollen and the vomiting and diarrhoea continued. After the second GP visit, Jackson vomited all over the floor at Woolworths and his eyes started to roll to the back of his head. A nearby midwife told Michelle to take Jackson to the hospital immediately.
“I kept saying Jackson, Jackson to try and get him to respond but he wasn’t really responding.” Says Michelle. “I just started panicking and panicking more now that a nurse had seen him and was worried enough to tell me to go to hospital.”
Michelle took Jackson to Bunbury Hospital and after being concerned about dark bruises on the top of his forehead, he was sent to a CT scan. A paediatrician then examined Jackson and Michele asked if she should be calling her husband Marc, who was working away, to come home.
“I remember the doctor looking up at me and the look on his face said everything. Without seeing the blood results, he was 99% sure that Jackson had leukaemia.”
They went straight to the Emergency Department at Perth’s Children’s Hospital where Jackson was diagnosed with both Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) and Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML). Since his diagnosis Jackson has experienced many setbacks on his treatment journey, including a staph infection, a murmur in his heart and a relapse of AML in his right testis. He has undergone intense high dose chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant and radiation therapy.
Jackson and his family still have a tough road ahead of them to beat this horrible disease. The family currently have to wait another three months to see if Jackson’s bone marrow transplant was successful, in the hope that he might be in complete remission.
To ensure CLCRF can continue to fund life-changing research to offer hope to families like Jackson’s, we need your help. By making a tax-deductible donation before June 30, you will be helping to make a huge difference.
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