Jake's Story
If you’ve known a young man, you’ll know it can be hard to get them to think of their health.
Jake is 25 and after a holiday to Europe with his two sisters, he felt really run down. He dismissed it and wondered about a nasty sore that appeared on his leg. His parents urged him to see a doctor and to put their minds at rest, he agreed.
The blood tests rang alarm bells and Jake was sent straight to the emergency department.
He tells us, “Funnily enough, I suggested to the doctor that maybe it was Acute Myeloid Leukaemia… (AML)”
As you may know, AML is a type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow. Sadly for Jake, his instinct was spot on.
“Four days later I started chemo,” Jake recalls. “It was surreal.”
The cancer journey is surreal. It’s like life as you know it stops and a whole new life starts – one you didn’t sign up for.
For Jake, the clock moved very slowly: “I had two rounds of consolidation chemo, while the search for a bone marrow donor match started. Both my sisters were only half matches and there wasn’t an adult match for my blood type on the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry. I admit that this was a very anxious time for me as it was the only possibility of getting better.”
The last option was a stem cell transplant sourced from our Cord Blood Bank. Like so many people we meet, those months waiting for a transplant match can feel agonisingly long.
For the whole family, it’s a scary and often lonely experience.
Not many people intimately know what it’s like to face a journey with cancer, and families who do need all the support we can offer.
The Cord Blood Bank Transplant Service of Fight Cancer Foundation provides people like Jake a greater chance of a match through access to a network of cord blood banks worldwide. With your help, we can continue to support people like Jake and his family by providing lifesaving treatment options, accommodation near the hospital and other support services.
Most of all, we’ll make sure families like Jake’s know they’re not alone.
Jake was very fortunate. After the long wait, a match was finally found in France – a baby girl whose parents had donated her cord blood.
“On the 20th November the transplant was done,” Jake says, “I spent the next 30 days in isolation. Our fortune continued as Fight Cancer Foundation’s accommodation centre offered my parents accommodation close to the hospital.” What a wonderful gift to give a young man – his mum and dad by his side where they’re needed most.
“The specialists say that all of my blood tests are very positive. Last week I had to start all of my immunization shots again… just like a newborn baby!” – Jake
