Jude Hawkridge had been just like any other boy his age. The seven-year-old from Rotherham was active, loved playing football and was a big fan of Leeds United. But then things started to happen which caused his mother, Jo, and the rest of his family to worry.
Jude was getting pale and fatigued. He was complaining about his muscles being sore and being tired a lot. “We were quite concerned quite early on because Jude was really athletic and a fit boy, he started to go quite pale,” his mother says.
“He said he was tired a lot, which just wasn’t Jude. He was only seven at the time and you know what seven year old boys are like, they are manic aren’t they. We could just see that he’d slowed down a bit, he said that his muscles were hurting.”
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He had night sweats and suffered an ear infection which was cleared up temporarily through treatment with antibiotics. During a game of football, he passed out.
After that incident, Jude was sent to hospital where he was treated for a concussion. His parents booked him in for a blood test and, when the doctor called out to their home, they knew something was wrong.
Test after test was conducted and a suggestion made to visit Sheffield as leukaemia was now suspected. In February 2020, Jude and his family received the devastating diagnosis of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.
“When they told me they thought it was leukaemia, I just felt shocked,” says Jo. “My heart just sank. It was an out-of-body experience because that doesn’t happen to your child. You don’t believe it.
“I just felt scared, really really scared. I never felt as scared ever in my life. The fear of losing him, because you’d been told your child has got cancer, it breaks you, you change as a person instantly from that point on.
“We never said the ‘C’ word until after the diagnosis at Sheffield. Once we did explain to Jude that leukaemia is cancer, he cried, and he said to me and his Dad: ‘Am I going to die?’
“To hear those words come from your seven year old boy it’s just soul-destroying, it’s heart-wrenching because I couldn’t say no you’re not. I didn't know what was going to happen.
“It was just heartbreaking to see him so upset and you could see the worry in him and how scared he was as well.”
Jude would have to endure long chemotherapy sessions and the scale of the fight he had ahead of him began to dawn on his mum.
“One of the nurses was showing me around, showing me where the washer was and the dryer, and I said to her: ‘I don’t know why you’re showing me all these things because I won’t be here that long’.
“The way she looked at me, I could see that she thought: ‘I feel really sorry for you because you’re new’. When I saw the way that she looked at me, I thought: ‘This is serious’. “Then that’s when it hit me. Bizarrely. It hit me there in the laundry room. Jude’s got cancer and it just broke me. Straight away I just broke down.”
Traditional chemotherapy wasn’t stabilising the leukaemia and after nine weeks the family was told that it wouldn’t be cured through chemotherapy. Options were presented to the family and they opted for CAR-T therapy and a bone marrow transplant as a back-up.
Jude got through the treatment but his parents were not convinced he was cured, a suspicion which was confirmed by doctors.
He would have to go for a bone marrow transplant. Jude’s sister was a 100 percent match and his parents were concerned as it meant both children would be hospitalised.
The transplant took place in November 2020 and Jude spent Christmas and New Years in hospital. It was during that period when Jude became a virtual mascot for Leeds.
Club captain Liam Cooper carried an iPad onto the Elland Road pitch for the home game against Newcastle with Jude on a video call on the other end. Jude had been due to start training with Cooper’s LC6 Academy earlier in the year but could not take up his place due to his diagnosis.
He was released from hospital in January 2021 and went into remission. But just a month later, after a lumbar puncture, it was confirmed that he had relapsed.
In May 2021, children’s book author and family friend Dan Fenwick wrote a book called “Marching On Together”, which told the story of Jude leading Leeds to the FA Cup.
Books were sent to Leeds United, with personalities like Marcelo Bielsa and Cooper autographing copies which could then be auctioned at raffles. All funds raised were donated to Sheffield Children’s Hospital where Jude had had his treatment.
Then Jude and his family had another decision to make; opt for a second bone marrow transplant or to go on a trial which involved a variation of CAR-T therapy, which they opted for.
Jude would be only the fifth child on the trial, there was a lot of protocol to get through before it even started and treatment would be delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He was due to start in October 2021 but his leukaemia started to rise and he was accepted onto the trial a month ahead of schedule.
“In our heads we thought: ‘This is his last chance, there’s nothing else we can try. This is his only hope, his only chance of life really’,” Jo says.
“So you find that energy again, you find that stamina and that fight really and you have to go again.
“We went into hospital in September 2021 thinking about six to eight weeks we’ll be in and we came out three months later. But Jude came out and he’s still here. We’re so so thankful to Manchester Children’s and the charities that funded that trial because without that trial Jude wouldn’t be here.”
Jude returned to Thorpe Hesley Primary School in March 2022, chauffeur-driven in a blue Porsche, his favourite car. He is now 10 years old and 10 months leukaemia-free.
As part of Cure Leukaemia’s “FINISH IT!” campaign, football fans across the world are being encouraged to buy a £14 “virtual” seat in the charity’s brand new 250,000-seater virtual stadium. The campaign will help launch a new UK-wide paediatric clinical trials programme that will deliver new innovative treatments to improve outcomes for children with blood cancer.
Jo is telling Jude’s story as part of that campaign.
“A lot of families are having the stress of having to fundraise to get a treatment, I can’t imagine the stress that they are under. To have that trial there funded by charities and companies, you’re giving children lifelines, you’re giving families hope to carry on being families.
“We really cannot thank everyone involved enough because we’ve still got our little boy. It’s so important that we continue to put money into trials and research because we need to get better treatments for children and just give families hope.”
You can help support the fight against blood cancer and buy a seat at Cure Leukaemia FC’s Virtual Stadium to become a CLFC season ticket holder here.
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