‘This is our last hope’ – Teenager with rare cancer ‘wouldn’t be here’ without donations as he receives treatment abroad

The mother of a teenage boy with a rare cancer who “wouldn’t be here” without public donations has said their “last hope” is the life-saving treatment he is receiving abroad.

Sam Holson, 50, who lives in Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire, with her husband, Adam Covington, 55, and their two sons, Harry, 18, and Jamie, 14, said her youngest child first noticed lumps on the right side of his neck while on a family holiday in April 2023.

Not thinking too much of it, the family continued life as normal but when the lumps grew in size and became painful, Sam, who was head of marketing for a manufacturing company but had to step back from her job due to her son’s health, took Jamie to hospital.

After undergoing tests, Jamie, who would play football five times a week, was diagnosed with a rare, soft tissue cancer called alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma in June 2023 – with an average of just 31 people being diagnosed in England every year, according to Sarcoma UK.

The news shocked and devastated his loved ones, and Jamie underwent two separate courses of chemotherapy, going into remission twice but relapsing each time, before his parents started to look for treatment options overseas as his choices became “limited” on the NHS.

Launching a GoFundMe page in September 2024, the family have raised more than £300,000 in “amazing” and “generous” donations and, since June this year, Sam and Jamie have been staying at a medical clinic in Germany where the teenager has been receiving life-saving cancer treatment.

Sam now estimates the family have spent most of the money originally collated with the fees of Jamie’s “incredibly expensive” care – and she said they will need another £300,000 for her son to receive the major immunotherapy vaccine he needs to survive.

Speaking from the clinic in Germany, Sam told PA Real Life: “This is our last hope, our last resort if you like.

“Without the support we have had, without the fundraising, Jamie wouldn’t be here now.

“We’re so grateful that he’s being given a chance at life and we’re relying massively on the kindness and generosity of people, family, friends and strangers.

“We’re prepared to remortgage our house if we have to and do everything we can, but any support we get means the world to us.”

Sam described her son as “incredibly fit” prior to his diagnosis, and he would play football five times a week as the captain of his school’s team.

Jamie was 12 when he first noticed one or two lumps on the right side of his neck while on a family holiday in Spain in April 2023.

“Over the next few weeks, they became quite prominent and they seemed to grow quickly,” Sam said.

Sam took Jamie to the family’s GP where she said he was examined and prescribed antibiotics, as his symptoms were thought to be from an infection.

A few weeks later while Sam was away on a business trip, Adam, a self-employed painter and decorator, phoned her to say he had taken Jamie to A&E at their local Hinchingbrooke Hospital as the lumps had started to become painful.

Sam said Jamie underwent further tests and examinations, and he was prescribed antibiotics once more.

Within a few days, Sam said the lumps were getting “bigger and bigger” and “more painful”, and the family were becoming increasingly “anxious”.

Sam said doctors then “determined the lumps were cancer” but it was unclear what type – and Jamie was admitted to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

In June 2023, Jamie was officially diagnosed with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare, soft tissue cancer where tumours develop from muscle or fibrous tissue and can grow in any part of the body, according to the NHS.

Sam added her son’s cancer was stage four and his prognosis was “grim”.

“You almost can’t believe it’s happening, you have an out-of-body experience and it doesn’t seem real,” Sam said.

“Jamie handled the whole thing incredibly well, he mostly takes it all in his stride.”

Jamie quickly started a six-month course of “harsh” chemotherapy treatment.

“It was relentless, it was tiring, it was stressful, exhausting – everything you can possibly imagine,” Sam recalled.

Sam said a three-month routine scan revealed Jamie was going into remission and that, after he completed the treatment course in December 2023, he could return to a semblance of normality.

“It was great news, he started to go back to school, his hair started to grow back and he started to put on weight,” Sam said.

A few months later in May 2024, however, Jamie noticed a pain in his side and scans revealed his cancer had returned.

He was put on another 10-month course of chemotherapy treatment, this time using a different drug.

After three rounds of treatment, Sam said scans showed Jamie had gone into remission again, and he completed his treatment course in February this year.

“We thought ‘great, we’ve done it again’,” Sam said.

“Jamie looked healthy, he had energy – it was almost like he had gone back to normal.”

Unfortunately, a routine scan in April this year showed the disease had returned once more, which “floored” and “devastated” the family.

Knowing treatment options were now “limited” on the NHS, Sam said they started looking further afield.

They discovered an immunotherapy vaccine at a clinic in Germany, which would use Jamie’s immune system to fight the cancerous cells in his body, but the family would need to pay to receive it.

They launched a GoFundMe page for support, which has raised more than £378,000 to date – and Sam said the family are “incredibly grateful” and “blessed”.

For the last six weeks, Jamie has been receiving life-saving cancer treatment at the clinic, which includes targeted and personalised immunotherapy treatments, genomic profiling and weekly IV infusions, and he appears to be responding well.

Sam said most of the money raised has now been spent, and they need to raise further funds to allow Jamie to receive a major immunotherapy vaccine “to give him the best chance of long-term remission” – which she estimates will cost another £300,000 in total.

“The vaccines range from 5,000 (£4,329) to 20,000 Euros (£17,317), to stay at the clinic it’s 1,300 Euros (£1,125) a night,” Sam explained.

“Every treatment on top of that, every medication, is an additional fee.

“It seems to be working but it’s incredibly expensive.”

Jamie has been sharing his story on various social media platforms under the name Jamie’s Quest – and his most popular TikTok video, where he addresses his followers and asks for help, has earned more than 1.4 million views.

“It’s great because I want people to understand why we’re trying to raise such a vast amount of money,” Sam said.

“Without that, Jamie wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”

To find out more, visit Jamie’s fundraising page here: gofundme.com/f/life-saving-cancer-treatment-for-jamie