Brave blind boy, 11, raises £60k for cancer patients while battling brain tumor
It's truly humbling to hear brave Jack Thompson talk about how lucky he is and how he wants to help others less fortunate than himself.
He has raised almost £60,000 through a string of initiatives and now champions the Sunday Mirror’s Home from Home Christmas Appeal in conjunction with the CLIC Sargent charity.
You can find Jack at his local Morrisons, Homebase and train station – rattling his collection tin and running raffles and tombolas.
It would be extraordinary for any 11-year-old.
Let alone one who is on his seventh course of chemotherapy after a cancer battle that started when he was just four months old.
Jack is registered blind and has an inoperable brain tumour.
Yet he says: “I know that every single pound makes such a big difference.
“I want to do anything I can to make other families dealing with cancer have an amazing Christmas.
“Every day I feel so lucky to be here, with so many people to meet and so much I can do to make the world better.
“As long as my ‘naughty lump’ stays away, I won’t stop.”
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Jack is eternally grateful to kids’ cancer charity CLIC Sargent, which has supported him and his family for a decade.
Now he is urging Sunday Mirror readers to follow his lead and put their hands in their pockets to keep Christmas magical for families going through similarly tough times.
We launched our appeal last month, with donations helping to fund CLIC Sargent accommodation near specialist cancer wards – so that families can be closer to sick kids in hospital.
It was four years ago that Jack organised his first event – a family fun day at a local supermarket, raising over £1,000.
He has given up weekends, evenings and birthdays in a relentless series of fundraisers. And he hopes to pass the £60,000 mark by Christmas.
Jack does four fundraising “shifts” a week on the checkouts at several Morrisons stores near his home in Gateshead.
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He also makes appeals over the tannoy at Newcastle Central train station. His beloved nana Elaine McKay, 63, takes him on his charity runs.
She said: “Every single opportunity he can, he’s thinking how he can raise more. He’s even set up a tuck shop at his karate class – he’s literally left no stone unturned.”
Three years ago, Jack and his cousin Emma signed up for the Junior Great North Run. Even breaking his toe didn’t stop him completing the course, raising £1,200.
Elaine added: “Jack even managed to get sponsorship from the doctor who was treating his toe.
“I took Jack to Blackpool a few weeks ago.
“But he didn’t want to go up the tower – he just wanted to find the nearest Morrisons so he could fundraise and help out on the tills.”
Jack – a pupil at St Augustine’s Primary in Gateshead – spent five months in hospital after being diagnosed with the brain tumour in November 2008.
Damage to his optic nerve has crippled his sight.
He takes six chemo pills with a chemo injection at night and has a daily growth hormone injection to strengthen his body.
Through it all, CLIC Sargent has been at the family’s side.
Elaine added: “In our darkest hour we had the incredible support of the CLIC Sargent social workers who came in and helped answer all our questions, pointed us towards getting financial help while Jack’s mum Diane couldn’t work, and were basically angels.
“We vowed then never to forget that kindness and when we told Jack about them a few years ago, he grabbed the opportunity with both hands.”
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