Soccer-loving 5-year-old Jasper is in maintenance treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia - he will ring the bell in September!

In May 2024, Jasper’s parents received some heart-breaking news…

Jasper was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He was just 3 years old.

He started chemotherapy immediately, with his treatment plan spanning two and a half years. His care team advised an aggressive approach with treatment as every scan revealed the possibility of relapse, and thankfully his body has tolerated the intensive treatment relatively well. He has had fewer issues than anticipated.

During the most intense phases of chemotherapy when he was too weak to run and play, his dad played cards with him to practice numbers, and they also incorporated gentle movement where possible.

The intrathecal chemotherapy he received is recognized to have potentially lasting effects on brain development, but thankfully Jasper has proved to be a very fast learner, and a keen and capable student.

Jasper has now hit the maintenance phase of treatment, which means less time in hospital and more time enjoying just being a kid and getting back to normal daily life at home.

As soon as he was able to, he joined swimming classes, signed up for soccer, and he has also been trying out gymnastics. 

His parents told us, “Physical activities that are fun have been so good for him… his body is still healing and rebuilding lost muscle, and his progress is amazing to watch.”

At this stage of his treatment journey, in maintenance, Jasper receives steroids, antibiotics to protect from infection, daily oral chemo, and monthly chemo infusions. Every now and then, he also has a dose of intrathecal chemo to keep any sneaky cancer cells out of his cerebral spinal fluid.

The plan is for him to ring the bell in September to mark the end of his treatment, after which he will enter “survivorship” and be regularly monitored until he’s 21 years old

Jasper’s family are passionate about advocating for childhood cancer research because “Children’s lives are never the same once they are diagnosed with cancer. They should be top of the list for research funding since they have so much life left to live and are our greatest investment a society.” 

And some words of advice from Jasper to other kids fighting… “Medicine tastes gross but you have to take it anyways!” and “Having cancer is hard but you can get through it. Don’t give up.”

Well said, Jasper! You’re an inspiration and we’re riding for YOU in September!