Meet Jack

Jack recently turned 10 and is the oldest sibling to his brother Sam and sister Annie. From the time Jack entered the world, he has been faced with adversity. Throughout Jack’s life, we have visited almost every type of specialist at Lurie Children’s and other surrounding Chicago hospitals and the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Despite all of the early morning appointments, food, and sleep deprivations, blood draws, and exhaustive and often uncomfortable tests and procedures, Jack has inspired us with his joyfulness, persistence, and positive spirit. Jack loves and adores his family, friends, teachers, and therapists and has an absolute zest for life.

He’s a 4th grader in Western Springs, Illinois. Jack receives physical, occupational, speech, and socio-emotional therapies inside and outside of school. He enjoys weekly therapeutic riding and has impressed all of us with his comfort on a horse. He is also currently involved with local art classes, t-ball, and a Special Olympics team. Jack struggles to run and move smoothly, speech fluency can be a challenge and he tires both physically and mentally during a typical day. He currently receives weekly growth hormone injections due to his small pituitary gland and was recently diagnosed with focal epilepsy, requiring daily anti-seizure medication.

Jack has many endearing nicknames, but one that has stuck with us since the beginning has been “Jack Bear.”  It captures Jack’s pure childlike love of stuffed animals and determination. He is, and will always be, our Jack Bear and we couldn’t think of a better name for our foundation. Jack inspires us each day in more ways than he will ever know and we hope to honor him by doing as much as we can to find a treatment and cure for SCAR-15.