Denise Smith had been involved in the annual Relay for Life long before cancer robbed her of her son Jacob.
In fact, she remembers bringing Jacob as a toddler to the late-night walks. Back then the Relays seemed like a good thing to do, though the Smiths had never been touched personally by cancer.
Then in 2007, 12-year-old Jacob complained of a sore arm, which Denise and her husband, Bobby, attributed to the previous day’s gym class.
The next day, however, he complained of the pain in the other arm.
Sensing this was not just a pulled muscle, the Smiths, who farm outside of Yates Center, took their son to the hospital where he underwent a CAT scan. The tests, though inconclusive, warranted a trip to Children’s Mercy in Kansas City, where a full-body scan revealed a tumor in Jacob’s lower back. It was Stage 4 neuroblastoma — a cancer that typically affects children 10 and younger.
For the next two years, Jacob was in hospitals as much as he was out. He underwent three surgeries, a stem cell transplant, two bone marrow transplants, and numerous rounds of chemotherapy and radiation.
At one point it seemed he was finally on the other side of the cancer, said sister Jessica.
“A scan in April of 2009 showed only 5 percent of the cancer remained,” she said. “But it was nestled so deep in his pelvic bone that it couldn’t be reached.”
It was shortly thereafter, that a second tragedy struck the family, virtually unmooring Jacob’s progress.
The same month that Jacob’s cancer was at its lowest level, his older brother, Josh, drowned. Josh, then 20, was with two friends when their pickup became stranded where spring rains had flooded a gravel road they were traveling. The friends escaped, but Josh was unable to swim to safety.
“He was on top of the truck,” Denise said, as her voice trailed off.
“From then on, Jacob went down fast,” said Jessica. In short order the cancer appeared in his brain, lungs and kidneys. Jacob died six months later, at age 14, a freshman at Yates Center High School.
AS THEY wrestled with their pain, the family also began to gain a sense a comfort.
“Josh shouldn’t have died that night,” said Denise. “He was taken first for a reason. He died so he’d be there for Jacob.”
