At 16 years old, Jack woke up with terrible pains in his hips. Thinking it was just growing pains, we gave him over-the-counter pain medications. It seemed to help as the pain subsided. Two weeks later, the pain was back and this time we figured it was worth a trip to the pediatrician. The pediatrician sent us to Children’s Hospital Colorado for a blood test. He recommended an overnight bag, just in case. We didn’t think it was anything and just got Jack to the hospital.

After a blood test, our oncologist broke the news – Jack had leukemia. Our world stopped. Jack’s response was, “That sucks!”

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Jack was immediately admitted to the hospital and thus began the long road fighting this horrible disease. For 5 1/2 years, Jack battled like a superstar and did everything that was asked of him. He endured multiple rounds of chemotherapy, CAR-T (twice), and ultimately a bone marrow transplant. He had every side effect the doctors warned us about, yet he approached everything with his can do attitude. He was determined to kick cancer’s ass. However, the one side effect he couldn’t beat was graft versus host disease from the bone marrow transplant. 

As a family, we are working with MAF to help find a cure so no other families have to take this journey.