Jake Spiegel

This is Jake Spiegel – He’s an energetic, highly-intelligent, lovable 14-year old recently diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma. It’s in his right arm. It's a rare disease which typically affects only about 300 young adults a year – most often affecting those in the 13-20 age group.

As you might guess by his photo, he loves sports - especially playing forward on his HS varsity soccer team. Not too shabby as he's only a freshman. But there's more to this teenager's balanced, young life. He’s the oldest of three boys – a great big brother by anyone’s standards.

For years he’s been in the gifted program at whatever school he’s attended – currently it’s the gifted program at Louis E Dieruff HS in Allentown, Pa. He holds a 4.33 GPA overall, but his favorite subject is Math – which he does A++ work.  He’s already been inducted as a member of the Junior National Honor Society and has been in numerous Math competitions. 

He is a voracious reader – having sailed through all the obvious series like Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Divergent, and the Maze Runner.

This is a truly likeable kid. He’s overcome other struggles in his life – not the least of which is learning to manage his Asperger’s Syndrome. He’s a polite, fine young man and hasn’t run into anyone he dislikes – and the feeling is always mutual.

His doctors have mapped out a treatment plan, that, while frightening and aggressive, will, in their opinion, be successful for Jake.

Please join us often on this page to learn about his progress, offer prayers, insight and words of encouragement and if you don’t have a lot of time – just to say Hi!

UPDATE: Jake's biopsies came back from his surgery on May 4 and his tumor was benign and where Dr. Healey cut his bone, the entire tissue area was benign as well. This was great news!

UPDATE: Jake will be having his surgery on Thursday, May 4 at Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC. Dr. Healey will be removing the cancerous tumor from his arm, which has been shrunk down to approx. 10 centimeters. Dr. Healey is the top cancer surgeon in the country for Ewing Sarcoma. We are very excited and very confident having Dr. Healey as Jake's surgeon. When Dr. Healey finishes his part of the operation, then Dr. Prince will come in to the operating room to attach the external fixator on his arm. The ex-fix will be on approx. 7 to 8 months. At the end of that time Jake's bone will have grown to full size. Amazing......can you believe he  will have his own regrown bone. Simply amazing! Shortly after Jake's surgey he will continue 2 more rounds of chemo. Then he will start his 6 rounds of his trial preventive chemo sessions.

UPDATE 11/30/17: Jake had his last trial preventive chemo on Friday, November 3rd. All his scans after that date have been clear! Jake is now still undergoing treatment for his ex-fixator. Jake was scheduled for surgery tomorrow but after Dr. Prince looked at Jake's arm x-ray's and saw a noticeable growth and healing up by Jake's shoulder he feels there will be NO need for a bone graphing. He asked Jake to wait 1 month and come back for x-ray's to make sure his arm is healing on its own. Tomorrow Dr. Prince will remove a few pins and cut some wires and lighten his ex-fixator and will remove one of the heavier pins from his front shoulder. Jake is excited to have a few things removed and hopefully by January or February the entire ex-fixator will be removed. Yeah!