This coming Monday, a Bridgeport resident will be heading for 20 hours of treatment at a Pittsburgh area hospital. The treatment is called immunotherapy and, although not completely the same, it is in the same venue as chemotherapy.

 

For most of us, it’s depressing to know that someone is battling any type of cancer. When you realize that the person going through the treatment listed above has yet to turn four years of age, it adds an entire new level of concern.

 

Here in Bridgeport, Jack Rollins is that youngster. Just about ready to turn four, this beautiful blue-eyed child is battling Neuroblastoma, which in layman’s terms is a cancer that forms in nerve tissue and generally strikes children age five or younger. Early Monday morning, Jack Rollins and his mother Brooke will be heading out Pittsburgh for a four-day stay at Children’s Hospital. Once there, and starting at around 8 a.m., little Jack will begin his 20-hour treatment that includes few hour breaks once it starts.

 

“We’re usually done with the treatments in the early hours the following morning,” said Brooke. “It’s something we do once a month. We’ll stay until Friday.”

 

Monday’s treatment is round four of immunotherapy. He’ll return home where he gets shots and other care from his mother and local medical professionals and then he returns to Pittsburgh for another round in February. God willing, it will be his last.

 

“After that treatment he’ll get some scans and depending on those scans will determine if we’re done or we have to do more,” said Brooke.

 

It’s been a little more than a year – just after Christmas in 2013 to be exact – since Jack was diagnosed and the battle began. There have been emotional highs, emotional lows and everything else one knows comes when the word cancer is involved.

 

Recently, a MIGB scan that is particularly focused on finding Neuroblastoma was done to address concerns the family was having with Jack. Once the scan was completed and reviewed, the results produced good news. Brooke said it showed NED – “No Evidence of Disease.”

Since that scan, he also went back for a CT scan prior to the Pittsburgh trip he’ll make Monday. The CT scan will help show if there are any other issues as a result of the cancer.

 

It’s all pretty heavy stuff for Brooke Rollins and her husband Ryan – who works in Georgia – to deal with. It’s even heavier for a 3-year-old to have to deal with.

 

Along with looking to update everyone on Jack, who has been featured on Connect-Bridgeport before, I wanted to see if the community could step up and help put a smile on this beautiful child’s face. Jack Rollins loves superheroes and, in a very real way, he actually is one.

 

“He is eaten up with it,” said Brooke with a laugh about Jack’s superhero infatuation. “It was bad at the beginning of this and we just thought it would be a phase, but it’s really amplified. He lives and breathes it and since it makes him happy, we certainly don’t mind it.”

 

Brooke said she also doesn’t mind the mail that arrives for Jack. And it’s here where I would love to see the readers of this blog step up and do something and perhaps share it with their friends and ask them to do it as well. Here in a couple of weeks – Feb. 5 to be exact – Jack Rollins will turn four years old.

 

I’m asking the good people of Bridgeport, Clarksburg, Harrison County and beyond to send Jack a card. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a birthday car, but that would certainly be appropriate. If possible, throw in a few superhero stickers or anything of that nature because, well, it makes Jack Rollins smile. Certainly, a stamp, a card and maybe a small item or two is more than something that falls within most of our budgetary guidelines.

“He really likes the mail and getting cards and they often have stickers in them and he gets so excited,” said Brooke. “Right now, he’s pretty sure he’s Spiderman, but Batman is running a close second.”

 

I’m asking folks to break into their piggy banks if needed and send Jack a card. Let’s make him feel as special as he really is. You can send the cards to:

 

Team Jack

C/O Brooke and Ryan Rollins

PO Box 395

Bridgeport,WV 26330

 

And the cards are making a difference. Not only that, the prayers, community support and messages the family sees on social media are making a difference as well.

 

“It’s been very uplifting for us. We live and breathe this stuff and we’re in a bubble here and sometimes the only communication we have beyond our house or the hospital is the internet, Facebook, the cards and newspaper clippings,” said Brooke. “If it was not for that, we’d really be disconnected from everything.”

 

If you would like to follow Jack’s journey, you can do so on Facebook by clicking HERE. If you would like to assist financially, you can do so by clicking HERE.

 

Let’s flood this child with cards. Hopefully, it will produce a flood of smiles from Jack Rollins and his family.

 

Editor's Notes: Photos courtesy of Prayers for Jack Rollins Facebook page; used with permission from Brooke Rollins.