‘Our inspiration to keep fighting’
Continuing fight against cancer honors life cut very short
Jackson Radcliffe would have had a blast on Saturday, July 30.
He would have danced to the live music. He would have played the games. He would have marveled at getting to meet Spider-Man.
“He’d be freaking out,” Jackson’s mom, Kayla Radcliffe, said. “Spider-Man is his favorite.”
Jackson didn’t get a chance to do any of that. That’s because the little boy with the old soul and charming, shy smile passed away on July 12, 2019.
Leukemia claimed Jackson’s life just three days short of his third birthday.
But just because he wasn’t physically at the Evergreen German Club in Ruscombanor Township on Saturday doesn’t mean he wasn’t part of the Rock Out Childhood Cancer fundraiser being held there.
“Rock Out is in memory of our son, Jackson,” Radcliffe’s wife, Melissa Mest, said. “As mommas, we’re already protective and ready to fight hard. Our inspiration to keep fighting is based on Jackson.”
The event — which included live music, food, games, cosplay actors, a raffle and more — raised funds for pediatric cancer research and oncology social work programs.
Mest said that through their son’s battle with cancer, she and her wife developed connections with other families going through similar experiences. And even though Jackson’s fight has ended, they feel a need to continue on in his honor.
“These children, day after day they’re fighting for their lives,” Mest said. “And they just want to be kids. We want to do what we can so they have better treatment options and the support they need.”
That need for support is something the Rockland Township couple know about all too well.
They’ve felt the panic and helplessness that comes from having a child diagnosed with a deadly disease, the despair and hope and anger and defiance that tangle together in the mind.
Jackson was first diagnosed at just 18 months old. His moms took him to the pediatrician for what they
thought was a routine case of pink eye.
But the redness around Jackson’s eye wasn’t from pink eye. It was a rash-like condition known at petechiae, which turned out to be a symptom of leukemia.
The diagnosis instantly and completely altered the lives of the family members.
“If forever changed us,” Radcliffe said.
Mest said the news was almost more than she could bear, a moment so jarring that memories of it seem enveloped in fog.
“Hearing that your child has a life-threatening condition or disease, it’s crushing,” Mest said. “When the pediatrician sat us down
and told us it was like a bomb went off. I couldn’t hear anything after. Kayla was sitting beside me crying.”
After that initial shock, however, Radcliffe and Mest quickly shifted gears. They knew what they had to do and wouldn’t let anything stop them from doing it.
“It was fight mode,” Mest said.
The next year and a half was a bare-knuckle brawl against an insidious, persistent foe. Jackson would spend a large amount of that time at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
The cancer was aggressive, which meant the treatment had to be aggressive
as well. That included undergoing two bone marrow transplants.
Through it all, Jackson never lost his spirit. He never lost the spark in his eye or the love in his heart.
“He was really just a bright light for us,” Mest said. “He was everything for us.”
If you’d like to help Radcliffe and Mest in their effort to honor Jackson by continuing the fight against cancer you can visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/jacksonsjourneytofightcancer or donate through Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s donor drive website at chop.donordrive.com.