Perez Westbrooks
Sponsor: Atwel Media Services

Oklahoma
Jake (Age 12)
Brain Tumor & Diabetes Insipidus

You can always count on Jacob for a good joke. This outgoing 12-year-old from Guthrie, Okla., is always ready to make you laugh and you’ll have a hard time not becoming an instant friend. Jacob always finds something to laugh about, though at certain points in his life he faced a future that was no laughing matter.

In 2003 Jacob’s future looked bleak. He was diagnosed with diabetes insipidus, a condition in which the pituitary glands stop producing a hormone that allows the body to retain water. This leads to constant thirst and dehydration and, if untreated, can be life threatening.

In September 2004, Jake also complained to his mom that he couldn’t see the chalkboard at school. The next day Jake’s mom took him to get his eyes checked and found out that Jake was completely blind in his left eye and had lost some vision in his other eye. He was sent to Children’s Medical Research Institute immediately and was diagnosed with a rare cancerous brain tumor. After 6 chemotherapy and 30 radiation treatments, his future now looks positive and doctors say he is cancer free.