A big-hearted Pride of Britain winner’s charity single Cowboy Jack - released to help a five-year-old boy raise £250K for specialist cancer treatment in the USA - is at number 30 in the charts … higher than Coldplay, Phil Collins and Ella Henderson.
Diagnosed with stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma - a rare cancer that starts in the nerve cells - in February, after doctors found a tennis ball-sized tumour above his right kidney, little Jack Gyde has since had surgery, eight rounds of chemotherapy and is currently in Bristol Children’s Hospital recovering from a stem cell transplant.
Now his mum Sarah Mackay, 38, a carer, and dad Ben Gyde, 37, an assistant manager for the National Trust at Brean Sands are trying to raise funds for Bivalent treatment, which involves the use of a potentially lifesaving vaccine, in New York, as it isn’t available in the UK.
Sarah, of Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, who first noticed something was wrong when Jack started limping and woke up at night screaming in pain, says: “Just six months ago he was absolutely fine - it’s hard to process how you go from absolutely fine to having stage four cancer in a couple of weeks.”
Expected to be in and out of hospital for the next eight months, Sarah, Ben and Jack’s little brother Joby, two, are all hoping that, Jack will be able to have treatment in the States in spring next year, once he has recovered.
“Jack is at high risk of relapse,” says Sarah. “If this happens the chance of survival is just 5%. My son needs treatment that is not available here in the UK to lower the chance of a relapse occurring. We are fundraising for the Bivalent treatment in New York, a potentially life saving vaccine. This treatment lowers the possibility of relapse and increases his chance of survival if the cancer returns.”
Hearing of the family’s plight, singer Darren Sims - who won Pride of Britain’s Fundraiser of the Year in 2017 - stepped in to help - donating all profits from his Cowboy Jack single, which can be downloaded from iTunes or Apple Music for less than £1, to his fund.
He says: “Jack absolutely loves dressing as a Cowboy, so I thought I would write a tune reflecting this and fill the lyrics with hope for the future. So many people from all over the world are joining together to help our favourite Cowboy. I felt I needed to do what I could to help this brave young lad.”
Sarah adds: “You read about children going through the same sort of things but you never assume it's going to be your own. We’ll never give up, we will do everything we can to help our son. We can't thank everyone enough for all their help."
You can donate to the Jack Gyde fund here or download the single from Apple or Amazon for just 79p.