Hi eveyone
As many of you are aware, my beautiful nephew Jake Swinscoe passed away on Friday 26th
April 2024, he was just 13 years of age. During his short life, Jake lived life to the full! He loved kayaking
and sailing, he played rugby, football and was a popular pupil at The Stonehenge School where he had many friends (even the teachers were fond of him). Jake was a typical teenager, cheeky, charming with a brilliant and sharp sense of humor! The bond he had with his big sister Ava was incredible they were the bestest of friends. Jake will be so deeply missed by everybody who had the pleasure to have known him. During the school summer holidays in August 2023, Jake was admitted to Salisbury Hospital after swelling appeared across the bridge of his nose, he had also complained of hayfever like symptoms, following further investigation, a CT scan concluded that jake had a 6cm mass inside his skull pressing on his brain as a result Jake was transferred to Piam Brown Ward in Southampton Hospital by ambulance. He stayed here for 2 weeks to have further tests and was unfortunately diagnosed with an Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma, which is a extremely rare and aggressive cancer, that had quickly spread to his
lymph nodes. With a prognosis of 20% chance of survival over the next 5 years. Jake was determined to get well
and (in true Jake style) achieve whatever he needed on order to have a chance to live his life. Jake endured 10 cycles of high intensity chemotherapy every 3 weeks at Southampton Hospital, In addition Jake spent 6 weeks at UCLH to receive Proton Beam Therapy and had multiple admissions to Salisbury Hospital where he suffered multiple infections and blood transfusions. A rouitine MRI scan was booked in November, results
evidenced that the tumour was shrinking, and Jake’s lymph nodes were now free of cancer. In March Jake was due to move onto the maintenance phase of his treatment and was looking forward to going back to school and having normality back in his life, when his consultant rang my sister, Lynsey and explained that there was something showing on his MRI and arranged a meeting for Jake and his parents the next morning. Here they received the devastating news that although Jake’s tumour was completely clear, cancer was shown to
be present in his spinal cord fluid and the fluid surrounding his brain and unfortunately his condition was now terminal. Jake agreed to try relapse chemotherapy in the hope that it would
improve his quality of life and prolong the time he had left, but unfortunately while in hospital he suffered a series of seizures and was moved to the Paediatric Intensive Care Ward as he was unresponsive. His mum and dad were told he had a huge swelling in his brain and a decision was made to transfer him to hospice to remove his ventilator and sedation, but the next day Jake woke up by himself, said he didn’t want anymore treatment for his cancer, and his parents brought him home to spend his last days.
Jake passed away 3 weeks later at home with his mum and dad by his side. I would like to raise some money to help his devastated parents Lynsey and Adam financially during this difficult time and to help pay for Jake’s Celebration of Life. I am also aware of many charities who have been affiliated with my family throughout Jake’s illness that Lynsey, Adam and Ava would like to contribute to, additionally to help pay for any other expenses they may face in the coming weeks. All funds will go directly to my sister! I can't do much myself as Jakes (cool) aunty. I can't take away the pain! I can not turn back time but I can ask for a little help to ease the financial burden on their behalf!
Thankyou for reading Jakes journey! He is an inspiration!
Goodnight beautiful 🩵
We can see stonehenge 🩵
Aunty Lou lou xxx ❤️