Member of the Month August 2025

"Jacob was such a loving, affectionate baby"

When he was just 21 months old, his family noticed small pin-prick bruises on his skin. They took him to the doctor, who wasn’t overly concerned at first. Jacob was full of energy, dancing around the examination room without a care in the world. Still, she suggested blood tests “just to be safe,” and with a smile said, “You’ll be home tonight, but it’ll be a long night, so take a packed lunch.”

His family weren't expecting the news that came next. The blood results showed that their beautiful boy had leukaemia. His white blood cell count was so high that it would have left a grown man bedbound—yet Jacob was still laughing and playing.

Jacob began an intense treatment journey for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) that lasted over two years. Those years were anything but easy. He spent a week in ICU battling sepsis, developed allergies to some chemotherapy drugs, endured severe mucositis, and fought through countless infections. But through it all, he smiled, he played, and he kept his family on their toes with his boundless spirit.

When Jacob finally completed chemotherapy, his family let themselves dream again. His type of leukaemia had a good prognosis and a low relapse rate. They started making plans for the future.

Three months later, just before his fourth birthday, Jacob went in for his routine post-treatment blood test. Once again, he was full of life - no symptoms, just a happy boy playing away. And once again, the results blindsided the family: Jacob had relapsed.

Now, he is back on treatment, facing round two of beating cancer. He has already collected his beads of courage from his first battle - each bead representing a procedure, a test, a treatment, or a milestone—and now they have begun his second collection.

Jacob has spent his second, third, and fourth birthdays in hospital. 

"He still manages to make me laugh each day and wipes away my tears telling me it will be alright. He is truly the strongest, sweetest boy I know"