Hello and welcome to this well over due update on Jacks Progress.

 

Since the schools have broken up for the summer holidays Jack has been a busy boy for the last 6 weeks travelling back and forth to Oxford everyday to have his Radiotherapy treatment. This came to an end on Friday 28^th of August. We still have to go to the JR for 2 more Fridays to have Vincristine Chemo shots but then we get 4 weeks off of treatment. So far Jack has done really well with coping with what has been pumped and zapped into him. The first two weeks all jack suffered from was a little sickness which was sorted with anti sickness medicine and a sore throat which was sorted with loads of ice lollies and ice creams. Week three and all of a sudden his hair started coming out in clumps. That was also sorted with me shaving his off and him shaving mine off.

 

 

This bit of a shock took Jack a bit of time to come to terms with, but with a bit of support from us both with caps, and his aunty Karen with her sense of humour he overcome this quite quickly with his new wigs.

 

 

Jack had been feeling down for a few days, so his aunty came down from Sheffield to cheer him up and took Jack to a fancy dress shop to treat him in an effort to put a smile on his face. And that wig is what he chose, due to the fact that he had been listening and watching Britney Spears on YouTube. Karen did explain that she tried her hardest to talk him out of it but he wasn’t having any of it.

 

We had a day out at Ufton Court Tudor house laid on by Clic Sargent who are dedicated to helping children with cancer. (http://www.clicsargent.org.uk/Home?gclid=)

The house and grounds were amazing to wander round and learn about its history. They also laid on a few fun things for the adults and kids along with lunch and as much tea as you could drink.

Now bare in mind Jack has just had an “enormous” Tumour removed from his brain and is now 3 weeks into his Radiotherapy and 3 shots of Chemo pumped into him he is doing this.

 

 

Not only did he get to the top and with a big cheer from the on looking crowd he also glided down like a professional. He did this 3 times in all and we both looked on with so much pride it nearly brought tears to our eyes. Thank you Clic Sargent.

 

Whilst driving through Old Windsor one day (lost I may add) Jack was with me when he shouted out ‘Oh My God look!’ Outside a lovely looking pub called The Oxford Blue was an A board advertising The Abba Girls tribute band this Friday. I pulled in and asked if children were allowed in and he said yes that it was a family pub and children were always welcomed. When we got there on the night and paid our £10 entry fee per adult we were surprised when the staff came round with lunch boxes for the kids with sausage and chips in and a massive hot and cold food buffet for the adults. So after a good feed and a couple of beers The Abba girls came on around 9-15 in full costume. I wish I had caught the picture on Jacks face. His jaw was on his lap, and that’s where it stayed all the way through there first number.

 

 

Well that is just a couple of things that Jack has been doing over last 6 weeks or so in-between his treatment which we think has helped keep up his spirits and kept him smiling with excitement.

 

Another charity Called NACCPO (http://www.naccpo.org.uk/) got touch with us about a month ago and has offered us a free 5 day holiday in Torquay Devon which we have accepted. The holiday has been donated by a very kind man called Luke Tillen of the Hotel De La Mer who was inspired by the secret millionaire program on the TV.

Luke has now set up a charity of his own (http://www.thhn.co.uk/) of which he has managed to get all sorts of businesses involved in donating there service’s  to help family’s that have been through traumatic illnesses. We are taking our holiday at the end of September and we will tell you all about it when we return.

About a week or so when we return from our holiday Jack is booked in for an MIR scan. This is the scan that actually found his tumour in the first place, so fingers crossed nothing will be found.

A week after that Jack will start his Chemotherapy Treatment which consists of 8 lots. Each lot consists of being admitted into Kamran’s ward at the JR in Oxford. He will then have 2 different types of Chemo pumped into him and be kept in over night for observations and hydration. Then if everything is ok he will be released to go home but will have to visit the Royal Berkshire hospital in Reading a week later for the 3^rd lot to be administrated into him and then the same the following week. We then get 2 weeks off for Jack to recover from that, and then it’s repeated again. He is booked in to have 8 lots of this treatment but we have been advised that he will probably only get to 6 and they will have to stop.

 

At the moment Jack is doing really well and in the morning we are sending him to school which he is a bit nervous about but we sure he will fine once he is there.