Help Jay Give Back! 15$ for his 15th birthday!

Jay is turning 15 this year, we thought this would be a fun way for Jay to give back to St Jude. We are asking, who can donate 15$ to help Jay reach his goal?

For some back story, at St Jude, there is a survivor wall. On that survivor wall there are plaques with names on them. On the first day at St Jude Jay said, Mom, I want my name on that wall.

We walked past this wall every day at St Jude and it gave us so much hope. We want to give others hope too!

100% of the proceeds from this fundraiser will go to St Jude. We will post proof of the donation. St. Jude uses this money for research, patient care and housing.

Jay has already raised 150$ towards this goal.

Jay’s desire is to purchase a plaque that will have his name on it, to serve as hope for other kids and to raise money to help St. Jude. We want this for him as well. But we need your help! It will take us some time to financially recover from what we have all be through to be in a position to make this kind of purchase ourselves. 

Thank you for your support and please share this!

For those who don’t know, Jay was living a normal 13 year olds life when suddenly he began having headaches, nausea and vomiting that seemed to resolve itself on its own. Thinking he was suffering from migraines we took him to urgent care. At urgent care the doctor had a gut feeling and said go to the ER and get a CT scan. Thinking it was overkill, I agreed and took him in. The CT scan revealed a large tumor. Unable to process what was happening I called a dear friend to help make arrangements. My husband and I drove to UNC chapel hill while Ashley stayed with Jay. He left by air ambulance. Grandma and grandpa flew to Raleigh. Chris went home with Keith. 

What followed is a parents worst nightmare beginning with a 10 hour brain surgery, which had many serious side effects by itself. Days went by waiting for the pathology report to tell us if it was cancer. Not picking up on the signs that oncologists kept visiting. A tearful and kind doctor told us what we should have already known. Things moved fast and we tried to roll with it. 

UNC was not giving us the odds we were looking for. The same dear friend gently mentioned a clinical trial at St Jude. It was so far and we just didn’t know. 

We called St Jude and thank god we did. They offered hope and told us to come. With one suitcase Jay and I took off. There were devastating consequences to this decision but we felt that saving Jays life was the most important thing and that this gave him the best shot. We had to live apart for almost a year with one parent with Jay and the other at home with Chris. Grandma and Grandpa had to put their lives on old for a year to help us take care of Chris so we could work. 

Jay had another 8 hour brain surgery in Memphis to remove residual amounts of the tumor. He has had 2 other surgeries as well. He also had 31 proton radiation treatments and 8 months of harsh chemotherapy. 

We have received an unbelievable amount of financial, emotional, spiritual and hands on support for which we will be eternally grateful.  

Jay continues to fight like Jay to this day, he is still doing intensive rehab and fighting cognitive problems as a result of the surgeries he has had and the radiation to his brain. Side effects of chemo have not presented and we hope they will not.

So we ask if you feel moved to please consider helping Jay! 

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