Solving Kids’ Cancer UK
Jude's Campaign
Jude was a dinosaur and animal-loving five-year-old who warmed the hearts of so many with his smile and attitude towards everything he faced.
Story
Jude, only child to dad, Arron and mum, Lucy, had a thirst for knowledge about how things work and why things happen. He loved Elton John and even received a Christmas card, present and video message from him!
In July 2021 Jude started to complain of pains in his legs, was struggling with walking, spiking temperatures, and having night sweats. After a few trips to A&E Jude was admitted to Sheffield Children’s Hospital for further investigations.
The evening before Jude’s third birthday his parents were told that a tumour had been found on his MRI scan. Jude was officially diagnosed a few days later with high-risk neuroblastoma, and his cancer had spread to other parts of his body.
Since his diagnosis, Jude spent over two years receiving treatment for neuroblastoma, including chemotherapy, surgery to his primary tumour, stem cell transplant, high-dose chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy.
He had numerous scans, covid swabs, injections, anaesthetics, surgeries or procedures, a stem cell transplant, blood transfusions and platelet transfusions. He went through countless NG tubes and had to wear hearing aids due to chemo-induced hearing loss. He spent so much time in hospital including birthdays and Christmases.
It completely shattered our worlds. We were quickly thrown into a new world of cancer, it had a whole new language and rules." Jude’s mum, Lucy
Relapse
Jude's family started fundraising to raise £236,000 for Jude to access the bivalent vaccine clinical trial in New York after frontline treatment, with the hope of keeping the cancer away. And thanks to his campaign's incredible support, the fundraising target was hit. Shortly after, he became unwell and struggled with pain and mobility. His end-of-treatment scans in November showed Jude had relapsed with significant disease in his brain, around his neck and in the whole length of his spine. Due to the location of his relapsed disease, Jude lost mobility in both his arms and legs, and could only slightly move his head. He couldn't play or even lift his hands to eat. Jude's relapse meant he wasn’t able to access the trial like his family had hoped.
Jude underwent three cycles of chemotherapy and reassessment scans showed significant improvement of the disease on his spine, but minimal change on the areas of disease on his brain. Just days after Christmas, Jude started radiotherapy. In March 2023, his reassessment scans showed his brain/head to be clear of disease and tumours in his spine had significantly reduced. Incredibly, Jude also regained nearly all mobility when paralysis is often tragically permanent.
Jude’s family and consultants agreed that the next treatment steps would be to access Car T Cell therapy in Rome, with the family travelling at the start of May. Sadly, after reviewing Jude’s scans, the clinical opinion was that he had too much disease to start treatment and the family flew back to the UK.
Scans in June showed some slight disease progression in Jude's head, and so he started on a combination of two new chemotherapy drugs - cyclophosphamide and topotecan. His next scans in August showed stable disease so he continued with chemotherapy.
During his time in between treatment Jude continued doing what he loved best, spending time outdoors at the beach and in the countryside, going to the theatre with his mum and dad, seeing Elton John in concert, getting star of the week at Razzamataz, visiting the National History Museum and even starting school.
In September after spending the morning at school, sadly Jude became unwell and was rushed to hospital. An MRI revealed disease progression in his head and a new tumour in the cerebellum. Jude's parents announced that he was receiving end-of-life care.
His final weeks were filled with mischief, cuddles and lots of love. Jude passed away in his parent's arms on the 30th of September 2023.
Jude very peacefully died last night. He was in my arms and we were both being cuddled by Arron. Like scattered seeds, memories bloom forever'. Jude’s parents, Lucy and Arron
Donations made in loving memory of children
Funds raised in loving memory of Jude will be used to support other children like Jude and their families through Solving Kids' Cancer UK's activities. Any funds raised through a previous fundraising campaign for access to treatment which were not spent on the child's treatment and pastoral needs are used to support other children and families through Solving Kids' Cancer UK's activities.
