Urgent appeal to help inspirational child with life-saving cancer treatment

An urgent appeal is being made to help a young boy with cancer to receive ‘life-saving’ treatment in Germany.

At just age 12, Jamie Covington was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma – a rare form of childhood cancer – after discovering lumps in his neck. This was May, 2023, and what followed was numerous rounds of gruelling chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

The treatment worked, and his family were told his cancer had gone into remission. But unfortunately, six months later, they were given the devastating news his cancer had returned.

Jamie is now undergoing more chemotherapy, but after finding out that further treatment in the UK may not be successful, his family are looking abroad for help.

Called ‘Jamie’s Quest’ the appeal hopes to raise £300,000 to pay for the brave youngster to be treated in a new medical trial.

Jamie’s mum Sam Covington explained: “We are in a race against time to fundraise for new, life-saving cancer treatment for our beautiful son. We have found a trial for an immunotherapy vaccine treatment in Germany that could save his life, so we urgently need to raise funds to finance this.

“The current chemotherapy he is on is not a cure. His tumours are shrinking and maintaining things, but after so many rounds of chemotherapy he could become resistant to treatment, with his cancer returning at any time.

“The immunotherapy vaccine is a novel, new treatment that has shown some positive results in patients with Sarcoma's like Jamie's. It will be tailored specifically to him and will use his own immune system to target and fight the cancer.”

Speaking about the moment the family were told Jamie had cancer, Sam said: “In May 2023 our world was rocked by the devastating news no parent ever wants to hear – ‘I'm afraid your child has cancer’. Our beautiful boy was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), a type of childhood cancer that we’d never heard of before, and one that was about to shatter our world.”

Jamie was described as “extremely fit and healthy” before his diagnosis – being an avid football player for two teams in Crowland and Godmanchester. But in May, 2023, he discovered a couple of lumps on the side of his neck. After numerous GP and hospital appointments, he was diagnosed following scans and a biopsy at Addenbrookes Hospital, in Cambridge.

"We were told he had high risk metastatic Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma,” said Sam. “The cancer was found to have spread throughout his body and we were told things would be challenging. We were shocked, heartbroken, devastated.”

Sam immediately gave up her job to care for Jamie – which put the family under considerable financial pressure.

“Life changed dramatically, all at once, and became incredibly difficult and stressful,” she said.

Jamie endured several rounds of chemotherapy, plus 23 rounds of radiotherapy – spending much of his time in hospital.

“We were hardly at home for six months,” said Sam. “The side effects were severe, he could barely open his eyes for two days during his hospital treatment. The sickness was constant throughout."

The cycle of treatment and hospital stays were relentless and exhausting, leaving Jamie too weak to even stand.

“It was an incredibly difficult time, but Jamie battled throughout and remained unbelievably brave, stoic and positive despite everything,” said Sam. “He was a true inspiration. The only time he got really upset was a day or two leading up to his next round of treatment, as he knew what was in store for him and how it would make him feel.”

To the family’s relief, the long course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy showed his cancer had gone into complete remission.

"Jamie’s hair begun to grow back, his energy levels picked up, and he returned to Hitchingbrooke School -and even to football training,” remember Sam. “He was starting to go back to living a normal life.

But at around six months, he began to feel a pain in his stomach and a new lump appeared on his back. A CT scan showed the cancer had returned in three places – with tumours in his stomach, next to his heart, and close to his lung. The family felt devastated all over again

Jamie was offered a different type of chemotherapy used for relapsed RMS, but the family were told it was not a cure, and the cancer could return at any time. This treatment began in May this year, with horrific side effects.

“It left him unable to eat for over a week due to mucositis and extremely sore mouth ulcers where he was unable to open his mouth to even talk,” said Sam. “The only thing he could tolerate was iced water fed to him through a straw. Consequently, his weight plummeted. He was extremely weak and it was too dangerous for him to undergo any further chemotherapy without any intervention.”

The family opted to have a peg fitted into Jamie’s stomach so he could be fed through a tube – an operation which the family said left him “incredibly sore”.

“As a parent it is heart-breaking to watch your child have to go through such awful things,” said Sam. “Things no child should have to go through.”

Now enduring his fourteenth round of chemotherapy at Addenbrookes, the family say Jamie is responding well.

“Everything is shrinking currently and moving in the right direction,” said Sam. “We are painfully aware, however, that it could return at any time - but his bravery, his fighting spirit and his positive attitude is keeping him, and us, going.”

Sam added: “As parents we refuse to lose our son, our eldest son refuses to lose his brother, and our parents refuse to lose their grandson. Please give what you can so we can beat the ticking clock, and Jamie can beat his cancer.”

Visit the family’s GoFundMe page to support Jamie’s Quest.