Jacob (a.k.a.  J-Bone), was your typical 11 year old boy. An avid sports fan/athlete - he had just made the travel baseball team when he began complaining of leg pain in October 2018. As a healthy 11 year-old boy, he had been diagnosed with growing pains by his pediatrician, which is very common.  A few months later and an unimaginable evening of extreme leg pain on Saturday, March 16, 2019, he went for an x-ray of his leg. He was immediately sent to CHOP's ER and we learned that Jacob had a very rare form of bone cancer, called Ewing's Sarcoma.

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Jacob's treatment plan would consist of 14 rounds of chemotherapy, a major orthopedic surgery half way through (to try and save his leg) and extensive physical therapy. All of this was so hard to comprehend and as we learned, with cancer, nothing is guaranteed. Shortly after his surgery, the pathology report showed a positive margin in his knee. This news was completely devastating as we hoped to save his leg, but couldn't. Being faced with an even tougher decision, we knew we had to do what was best, the option that would give Jacob the best chance at living cancer-free.

 

In December 2019 he completed treatment and underwent another surgery in January 2020, to amputate his right leg. He accepted the decision and was ready to move on. He got his first leg in February 2020 and was all set to start PT when Covid hit. He wasn't going to let a global pandemic keep him from walking, so along with his prosthetist, he taught himself how to walk with his prosthetic leg.

 

Fast forward to 2022, Jacob is now 14 years old, 2 1/2 years cancer free and ready to take on the world with his new prosthetic leg. He has taken on a role as a motivational speaker when given the opportunity and wants to continue to motivate and inspire people to keep going no matter how hard things seem.

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Would you like Jacob to speak at your event? Contact Us!