JORDAN'S STORY

Jordan was 13 years old when she had a painful lump appear on the side of her knee. Her GP later diagnosed this as soft tissue damage from playing sports and prescribed physiotherapy. Nine months later, now aged 14, her leg seemed to be getting progressively worse and we insisted X-rays be taken. Two days after the X-rays we received a phone call from the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital at Birmingham telling us we needed to go and see a specialist there.

Jordan was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma (bone cancer) in her leg and told that she needed to have a course of Chemotherapy at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital. The chemo would be followed up with a surgical procedure where they planned to remove Jordans bones from above the knee, to 12 inches below, and replaced them with a titanium prosthetic. Following the surgery, Jordan would have to undergo more chemotherapy treatment with the worst-case scenario being that she could possibly lose her leg from mid thigh.

Without going into too much detail the next 12 months saw Jordan undergo many courses of chemotherapy and several operations on her leg. As her father I spent much of this time living at the hospital on the Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT) ward supporting her as she went through the treatments. None of which would have been possible without the support of my partner Sue, my son Max and stepdaughter Laura.

In June 2013 after what we thought was her end of treatment scan, it was discovered that Jordan had 20+ metastatic tumours on her lungs. This was caused by the sarcoma in her leg splitting the bone and getting into her blood stream. Jordan went to Heartlands Hospital in late July where she underwent more surgery to remove tumours from her right lung. Two weeks after this a scan revealed that more tumours had appeared and further surgery was not possible. Jordan started more chemotherapy in September in an attempt to kill the tumours but in Feb 2014 we were called to see her consultant at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital (BCH). Her consultant informed us that her treatment was not working and would now stop as there was nothing else to be done. Jordan was told she was terminally ill and only had a matter of months to live.

On the 9th April 2014 at just 16 years old, Jordan lost her battle to cancer and sadly passed away. Her wish was that we used what we had learnt throughout her journey to help others in her memory, Jordan’s Weeones is her legacy.

Jordan loved music, especially heavy metal, she was a bubbly friendly talkative girl who loved life, she had many friends and a constant smile on her face. None of this changed throughout her treatment, even at the worst of times she always managed to smile and help other children she met at the hospital. I am privileged to have a daughter who taught me as much if not more than I taught her. Cancer does not define who Jordan is in our hearts. She had such an awesome personality and it is this and her love of life that drives us to help other families supporting their children in her name.