A 13-YEAR-OLD boy died from a rare form of cancer that his parents initially mistook for hay fever. Jake Swinscoe was suffering from a "stuffy nose and watery eyes" - common symptoms of seasonal allergies - so his mum Lynsey offered him antihistamines . But the teenager was later diagnosed with stage 3 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma - a soft-tissue cancer that mostly affects teenagers and young adults.
Jake started receiving intensive chemotherapy, followed by proton beam therapy, which successfully shrank the tumour. However, another scan showed that the cancer had spread to his spinal cord and fluid around his brain. After this, he accepted his fate with incredible courage, according to his mum.
The 41-year-old, from Wiltshire : "When Jake found out there was nothing more the doctors could do, he dealt with it amazingly. "He chose not to have any further treatment – and his consultant said he was the first teen who’d ever said that. "I even caught him planning his own funeral.
I am just so proud of him. "If I’d been in his shoes, I don’t think I’d have handled it as calmly as he did." In June 2023, Lynsey, who works for the Ministry of Defence as a civil servant, noticed Jake was struggling with what she thought was hay fever.
"His symptoms were quite subtle," she said. "He had a stuffy nose and watering eyes, and because it was summertime, I figured it was hay fever. "He hadn’t suffered with it before, so I gave him antihistamines, which helped.
" Lynsey wasn’t wor.
