Jacob Taylor
I don’t know Jacob Taylor. You probably don’t know Jacob Taylor. But we should.
He is a young man, who, in less than 17 years of life, has survived unimaginable hardship.
And now, as he fights for his life, again, he needs the thoughts, prayers and help of all of us, whether we are key people in his life or mere passerby.
His story was brought to me by Jake Davis, a baseball and football player at Coupeville High School. Jake is Jacob’s cousin and he asked for help in getting word out about Taylor.
Nine days ago, Jacob, a high school student in North Carolina, was diagnosed with Stage 4 testicular cancer. There are only four stages of cancer, and stage four is the worst.
If that was his entire story, it would be hard enough to talk about.
No one wants to see a young man brought down by a terrible disease as he enters the prime of his life.
But, in talking to his mom, Christine Taylor, you find out that her son has spent most of his life battling, never giving up, surviving against great odds, and, always, remaining a bright, shining light of joy and hope to his family.
In her own words:
When Jacob was 22 months old he quietly followed his dad out the door without anyone realizing … his dad didn’t see him and backed out of the driveway and ran over his entire body.
People that witnessed this are amazed he survived. It was horrendous.
We lived in a tiny town with a small hospital. They did a CT scan and found fluid on the brain and needed to transfer him to a larger children’s hospital to have surgery and release pressure off his brain because they were not equipped to do this.
We lived a good three hours from the children’s hospital and he had to be air flown there. We could not fly with him due to the helicopter having no room.
Later, the EMT told us she had to revive him three times.
The hospital did another CT scan and found no fluid on his brain and no need to do surgery. Doctor said he was so lucky because he was under two years old barely and his skull was still pliable and able to move and not be crushed.
If he was just two months older he would not have survived.
Jacob was in the hospital for little over a week and had to learn how to walk again.
He has had some learning challenges in school but overall has made a beautiful recovery from that tragedy 15 years ago.
Jacob has lived in Arizona for 12 years and went to school there and has many friends in Arizona.
Just two years ago we moved to North Carolina due to his dad’s job.
It was a difficult move for Jake. But he is a trooper and a non-complainer.
He is the youngest of five children and when we moved most of the family stayed in Arizona. Jake is very close to his siblings, so this made the move even harder.
He enrolled as a sophomore at Clayton High School in our little town here.
He has made some friends and gets along with everyone. No one ever has a bad thing to say about Jake.
He has successfully completed his junior year as well and will be a senior this coming year.
Jake loves to surf, hang out with friends, drive his Bronco, play basketball, and enjoys working at Buffalo Wild Wings as a cook.
And in the last year his siblings have moved out to North Carolina, which makes him very happy.
They do a lot together. Working out and being active is so important to Jake. He and his older brothers would go to the gym every day together.
This cancer has been a shock and is overwhelming for us all.
Jake is strong and will make it through this, because, as his brother Reed said the other day “Jake, you’re a miracle child in our family … and you’re going to pull another miracle off with this cancer.”
Two days ago I had never heard of Jacob Taylor.
Today, I have a personal stake in seeing him punch out cancer and live a long life. His survival matters.
I had an aunt who had Stage 4 cancer and got back out of that bed and hung around for another 40 years. It can be done.
Whether we know Jacob personally or not, we can help. We can send him hope, both in our thoughts and in our messages.
Go to the site family friends have set up for him.
Read his story. Send him a message. Pray for him, if that is something you do. Donate to help with his family’s medical expenses, if that works for you.
Let him know that he is not alone. Not before, and certainly not now.
Jacob Taylor may never have stepped foot in Coupeville, but he is part of Wolf Nation from this moment on. And we do not forget our own.
https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/j745/jacob-taylor-cancer-fund?utm_source=facebook
Coupeville Sports 