Jason is a Trooper.

Jason works hard in every session.  He always does his best, tries as hard as he can.  Jason is 9 years old and he has been coming to Heartwell since October last year.  He is a real trooper and great to work with.  He was referred to us by the Victorian Paediatric Rehabilitation Service (VPRS) at Monash Medical Centre.

Jason was diagnosed with a medulloblastoma at the age of 20 months.  Medulloblastoma is a highly malignant primary brain tumor that originates in the cerebellum or posterior fossa.  He had the tumour resected (surgically removed) and then followed a course of chemotherapy, all before he was 2 years old.

Jason is now in remission.  

He now presents however, with a few problems.  He has 20% vision loss in his left eye.  When we met him 5 months ago he had just had his plaster removed and was recovering from a fractured left arm.  One of his personal goals, and that of his physio, was to reduce his constant tripping/falling at school due to his poor balance.  Jason also wanted to feel less tired and fatigued all the time.  He wanted to improve his opportunity to participate in sports and physical education at school.  

There are many things we work on with Jason.  He needs to learn how to hop and skip.  He needs to learn to throw and catch balls, despite his poor vision.  He needs to learn to control his momentum when he is moving and running about.  He needs to learn to track objects as they move towards him.  He needs to learn he can do all these things and lots more now he is being taught.  He needs to improve his confidence.  He needs to learn to believe in his ability and that he can participate and be involved in school sport - so that he will have a go.

In an unbelievable twist to Jason and his parents story of courage and resilience, is the story of Jason’s baby sister, Kelly.  Kelly was 2 years old and two years younger than Jason when she passed away from the same tumour-medullablastoma.  Jason’s parents had two children, both very young, undergoing cancer treatment at the same time.  Apparently the chance of siblings having this same tumour is so rare it’s said to be one in a million.  They are a very courageous family.    

Jason has made good progress and continues to do so.  He is fitter and stronger and we look forward to watching him grow and develop further this year. 

Lets do some change of direction work.

Jason and Scott