Life seemed to going pretty well for this 17 year old avid outdoors kid. On a spring fishing trip Jack started experiencing serious back pain. After a visit to an orthopedic doctor it was discovered Jack had numerous compression fractures in his spine. Upon further more in-depth testing we heard the unthinkable. Jack was diagnosed June 2 2017 with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia cell b. He took the news like a warrior ready for battle. The plan was made and forward we went. After two unsuccessful rounds of intense chemotherapy, Jacks team at Luries Children pushed for Jack to get the last spot in a clinical trial for the very risky Car-t living cell therapy. By the grace of God he received that chance at it. The white blood cells were harvested and sent off to be genetically reengineered. Once they were ready to fight the cancer cells the new T-cells were infused back into Jack and the fight was on. Jack had a full blown cytokine release storm. 16 days in icu. And when he was tested a few weeks later the results showed IT WORKED!!!! He was MRD negative and in remission. Jack was allowed to go home to prepare for the next battle, a Bone Marrow Transplant. A donor was located thru Be the Match residing in Germany.  The Stem cell team agreed that the time to transplant needed to be moved closer to his mrd negative date. So a month after being home Jack went back into Luries for the second gift of a lifetime. The Bone Marrow Transplant went as well as they could plan. He still experienced all the ugly side effects associated with BMT.  And 38 days later Jack received the best news . He can go home. And he is still disease free. And his donor cells were at or above 98%.  The aftercare has been a challenge to get his numbers in the normal spectrum but knowing that things just take time to recover from the toxicity has been the reality.  Jack still is on IV fluids just as a supplement each night to help his body heal. The journey is far from over. Other than that he is eager to get back to his passion of fishing. And ultimately graduating from Lake Central High School this May!   Thank you for supporting more than 300,000 kids worldwide who will be diagnosed with cancer this year. By sharing the gifts of your time, talent and money with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, you're supporting research to give all kids with cancer a better chance for a cure.