Meet Jackson, an 11-year-old from Bessemer City, NC who has never run away from a challenge. Jackson’s story has been far from easy, at only 4 -years old he was diagnosed with an Ependymoma tumor. He had brain surgery in 2016 to remove it at Levine Children’s Hospital and then endured 33 rounds of radiation therapy in Jacksonville, Florida. Since then, Jackson has received clear scans and is considered to be in total remission!
Last February, seven years after his initial diagnosis, he began having headaches and started vomiting at school. Jackson received a C-T scan and it revealed necrosis of the brain, a serious complication caused by his prior radiation therapy. At that point, the doctors decided to do a biopsy.
The biopsy revealed cancerous scar tissue, which lead to Jackson’s third brain procedure. During surgery, the doctors found a high-grade brain tumor. As a toddler, Jackson’s radiation to treat the original cancer caused a different extremely aggressive form of cancer. One month ago, Jackson fought through another surgery, where doctors removed 75% of the tumor. In a matter of weeks, this baseball-obsessed young man went from playing on the field to fighting for his life…again.
Jackson looks up to Yankee first baseman – Anthony Rizzo. He dreams of attending a game at Yankee Stadium and meeting his sports hero! Jackson believes if Rizzo can survive cancer & play in the MLB, so can he.
