Brave battler fight of his life
TRANSPLANT MEANS BOY WILL SPEND MONTHS IN STERILE UNIT
Reporter RESTING in his bed, little Jac Sheldon is facing the biggest fight of his life.
The schoolboy has undergone a life-saving bone marrow transplant at Newcastle’s Great North Children’s Hospital.
And he faces spending the next three months in a sterile ‘bubble’ at the Children’s Bone Marrow Transplant Unit while he recovers.
The ‘bubble’ will protect the nine-year-old from bugs and infection as he battles back to full health.
His uncle Gary Briggs, 45, said: “Jac is doing really well and the doctors have been really pleased with him.
“We have to wait around 10 days to see how the transplant affects him but so far he has responded well. He thinks the bubble is great. He has got his xBox in there and they have Sky for him with all the movies so he is quite happy.
“The doctors said he has to wait between eight and 12 weeks so we’re waiting to see how he gets on.”
Jac, of Westerhope, Newcastle, was first diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in 2014 after he began to suffer lower back pain, a sore stomach and bruising. His mum Nicola Sheldon described his diagnosis with the deadly disease as “the biggest shock of my life”.
The Beech Hill Primary School pupil fought bravely to beat the aggressive children’s cancer twice in the last three years.
But his family were left devastated when doctors discovered in April that the disease had returned.
Jac underwent several rounds of radiotherapy at the Freeman Hospital and rang the hospital’s bell to mark his last day of treatment.
The youngster then had treatment for his life-saving transplant at the children’s hospital on September 8.
Mr Briggs said: “One of the side effects is ulcers in the mouth so he has been struggling to eat. He is