Cal’s Angels and the Blackhawks Make a Wish Come True

Cal Angels came through in a big way when Jacob’s wish was to go to a Chicago Blackhawks game with his family and meet his favorite player Jonathan Towes – a big THANK YOU goes out to Kayla Kindred and the rest of the Blackhawks organization for making it happen!

Jacob’s Mom recounts the evening, “Jacob brought his best friend Ryan with to the Chicago Blackhawk game. We brought his night medicines into the game so we didn’t have to worry about when to give them. Even though the Hawks lost, the excitement of the game kept him awake the entire game.”

“After the game our family was escorted into the locker room for a meet and greet. Unfortunately, ladies are not allowed in the locker room for logical reasons, so I had to wait in the locker room hallway with a few other ladies while the boys went in. The boys thought that was quite funny! They were in there for a good 30 minutes. As I was waiting I envisioned the boys walking out of the locker room smiling ear to ear! Well, that is just what happened. I don’t know who was smiling more Mike or the boys. Mike walked out holding a hockey stick. I said “what is that?” Jacob screams “it’s Toews’ stick mom!” They had a great time meeting many players and were in awe while they walked from locker to locker reading the names of all the players that they enjoy watching so much. It was 11:00pm at this point and the boys were wide awake! Once we got into the car however, they were passed out instantly!”

“What an incredible evening for our SuperHero Jacob and our entire family.  This was an incredible evening that will be remembered for a long time by all of us.  It was such a thrill for Jacob to see his very first Chicago Blackhawks game and even more special was the opportunity to meet his favorite player, Jonathan Toews.  Such a very special night!” Jacob’s Mom stated.

A Little About Jacob

Jacob is 7 years old.  His parents are Mike and Jennifer and his brother, Zach, is 8 and his sister, Isabella, is 3.  Jacob loves to be outside and has really been loving the weather lately.  He is a free spirit and loves all sports.

Jacob’s story is much different than a typical leukemia patient.  Jacob experienced seizures at 18 months old which led the doctors to figure out that he had all the signs of “Pre – Leukemia” meaning that at some point it would be full on cancer but they had no idea when.  To stay in front of the cancer, they would need to do a stem cell transplant which they did in October 2009.  Before beginning the procedure, they did a bone marrow aspiration and the cancer was present so the timing was perfect to be moving forward.  The good news is he never went through the months of chemo treatments of a typical case but he has had more than his fair share of issues since the transplant.  First, he had GVHD of the gut (Graft Versus Host Disease).  That is when the new cells are battling with the old.  When it is in the gut it is very critical - he ended up in the PICU for weeks.  After getting through that, he began GVHD of the skin which he has had since December 2009 and the doctors have no idea when it will go away.  He goes twice a week to Children’s to have his blood taken out of one tube to be “filtered and cleaned” and put back in through his other tube.

As we all can attest to here at Cal’s Angels, spend just one moment with Jacob and you will instantly fall in love with him – he is a complete sweetheart!