Jack Meeks

When Jack was 16 he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. In remission since December 2009, Jack is thankful for all the support he has been shown by Teenage Cancer Trust.

It all started for Jack when he began to notice gradual weight loss:
“I had just finished secondary school when I began to notice it. I ignored this and carried on going to work, labouring with a local builder. As the weeks went on I started to get pains in my shoulders, which got worse as the days went on. I finally booked a doctor’s appointment and after the usual weeks wait to get in I finally got into see a doctor, but not my doctor. They just told me it was growing pains and sent me home. I carried on working, going to the gym regularly and living my normal life.”

“My pains and weight loss got worse.”

After another week of constant pains Jack’s girlfriend and parents persuaded him to book another doctor’s appointment:
“I managed to get in within a week, again not with my doctor, but they still just sent me home telling me its growing pains and that I’m doing too much at work. I also started having bad night sweats and lacking in energy but didn’t go back to the doctors for a couple of weeks because I started to feel that they were thinking that I was wasting their time, especially as they just keep on sending me home with the excuse of growing pains. When my face started swelling up I finally gave in and booked yet another appointment. This time they told me I had mumps and gave me treatment for that but still told me the shoulder pain was growing pain and prescribed me physiotherapy. The swelling of my face seemed to go after a week and so I thought that the treatment had worked, although all the other symptoms stayed.”

After losing 3 stone in weight and Jack’s night sweats getting worse, he went to see the doctor again but this time actually got to see his own GP:
“He instantly booked me blood tests that day. They tested for glandular fever but this came back negative so a few days later they did more blood tests and this time tested for teenage diabetes. That night I collapsed at home and was taken into my local A&E. I spent a week in hospital where they did lots of tests, originally testing for swine flu but eventually testing for leukemia. After being diagnosed I got transferred to Addenbrooke’s hospital because Peterborough hospital could not treat my age group.”

“The following two weeks all I did was sleep and be sick.”

On September 15, after confirming his diagnosis, Jack arrived at Addenbrooke’s:
“I was sent to the sperm banking clinic on the 16th and started my chemotherapy that afternoon. My first intensive treatment of chemotherapy I had as an inpatient and stayed in for 5 weeks. My second intensive course I had as an outpatient but had to travel an hour to and from hospital. I finally finished my intensive treatment and was told I was in remission in December 2009. This was when my 3 years of maintenance treatment started. This consisted of taking my chemo at home every night and coming into hospital fortnightly for vincristene, a drug that inhibits cell division in cancer treatment, and a lumber puncture, a medical procedure where a sample of fluid is taken from inside the lower back for testing, every other month. Unfortunately I seemed to get every infection going and have had 8 blood clots. In the first 12 months of treatment I spent 7 months as an inpatient and after 5 Hickman lines, a central venous catheter used for the administration of chemotherapy, and 4 PICC lines, A peripherally inserted central catheter, they gave up with them and I now just have my treatment through a cannula, a tube that can be inserted into the body for draining off fluid.”

“The facilities felt more suitable for a 5* hotel not a cancer ward.”

Over the last two and half years of treatment Jack has always been put on adult wards because the new teenage cancer ward was still being built:
“The biggest problem with this is I rarely saw anyone my own age and in the same situation as me which left me feeling alone. I used to get daily visits from the teenage cancer youth support coordinator and the teenage and young adult cancer service (TYA) staff and I also had access to the Oasis centre run by the TYA. I recently got admitted back into hospital with another blood clot, however the Teenage Cancer Trust ward had been opened and this is where I spent the next week. I could not believe how amazing this ward was. The nurses seemed to have all the time in the world for you and took their time to get to know you as well, instead of just treating you. You didn’t just feel like a number. It really was like home from home. The best part of the ward though was being on there with other teenagers! I was almost saddened to go home.”

“My whole family and friends have been beside me all the way and made this horrible experience much easier.”

Throughout Jack’s treatment it is his dad and his girlfriend who he is most thankful for:
“I could not have done it or coped anywhere near as well as I have without my dad and girlfriend, now ex girlfriend but we are still best friends. It’s been my dad who has taxied me to and from Cambridge everyday and spent many hours sat in A&E and by my bedside. I couldn’t have asked for a better person than Jess to be with me as she stuck by me and visited nearly every day, even if she did get the rubbish jobs like holding the sick bowls, it’s a lot to ask for a 16-year-old who was just about to start her A-levels.”

Jack is also thankful to Teenage Cancer Trust for all the experiences throughout his treatment:
“I’ve been lucky enough to go to Find Your Sense of Tumour (FYSOT) twice and this by far has been the most inspirational experience of my life. Both weekends away helped me so much and answered so many questions I kept on asking myself. I’ve also meet some amazing friends through Teenage Cancer Trust. Some of the other experiences I have had are the Royal Albert Hall gig where I met the Editors and saw them perform and recently I got invited to an event where Teenage Cancer Trust teamed up with the willow foundation and my friend Oli and I went to RAF Cranwell where I got to fly a plane and had a formal dinner with Bob Wilson. I am still on my maintenance treatment which I am due to finish on the 21 December this year and I am also due to start my college course in September where I am going to study electrical installation.”