Jarred’s bucket list
Watch the video interview at nzherald.co.nz
is 67, but Townsend is one of the “unlucky few” that develop it at a young age.
Mother Jenny Hibbert said they were told it should be easy to treat because he was young. “That’s what we always held on to. You’ve got to hold on to hope,” she said.
Townsend started chemotherapy the day after he was diagnosed, and went through three chemo treatments, underwent a stem cell transplant, and a donor lymphocyte infusion.
But at the end of May, he and his family went through another shock — he had relapsed after the infusion and doctors said there were no other treatment options. He asked for a ballpark figure of how much longer he had to live and was told it would probably be two weeks.
“I felt fine at the time . . . two weeks is such a short time when I was feeling so good. Now we’re just playing it by ear, seeing how my cells are going.”
Townsend has no immune system to speak of, and cannot go out in Finish working on his Nissan Skyline Go skydiving Visit the Bay of Many Coves Finish working on his Harley Davidson Have a photoshoot with his dog Nismo Have a night away with friends in the Wairarapa Drive his car on the track at Manfeild public much or into crowds of people, but at the moment he feels “not too bad at all”.
“I’ve been feeling good, it’s quite freaky . . . I’ve still got quite a lot of energy.” There are still bad days where he has no energy, or picks up a bug, and those ones can be worrying.
So far he’s ticked off a few things on his bucket list, including finishing his project car after about four years of working on it, going skydiving, and being flown by helicopter to the Bay of Many Coves resort in the heart of the Marlborough Sounds.
He still wants to finish working on his Harley Davidson, take his car to Manfeild to drive it on the race track, have a night away with his friends, and have a professional photoshoot with his dog, Nismo. “He’s like my best mate,” he said. Townsend is still wracking his brain for more bucket list ideas, though his options are limited due to his immune system issues.
Despite the dire prognosis, Townsend manages to stay positive.
“I just feel like there’s no point being too sad about it, because it will sort of ruin my time, you know?”
He still holds out hope the stem cell transplant will fight the leukaemia, but he has reconciled himself to the idea of death. “It’s kind of inevitable for everyone . . . I kind of just thought my time will be my time.”