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This is a message from Jack's mom, who has now gone to Vermont with Jack, because he isn't ready just yet to give up his fight. They have a new treatment programme running in Vermont but the fundraising needs a boost so if you can will you put the word out for the sponsored run in New York?

Jack, unable to have the chemotherapy in hospital was back at school and loving it. Outwardly he showed no signs of disease, with the exception of the pallor of his skin. After 3 years of treatment he is the same happy and loving child, as full of life as he was all those long years ago when life was once "normal". Jack has not tired of the fight. The problem is our doctors appear to have tired of the fight. And that is the conclusion I have reached with Sloan Kettering. With more and more children being diagnosed, and more and more children going to Sloan Kettering, there is less time to spend on the children who have the most aggressive disease, and less time to spend on research when there are so many more patients to see......

In the children who relapse time and again, the current therapies are only killing off the weaker cancer cells, the ones that have spread.... but a different combination of drugs is needed to then kill the stronger 'root' cells from which the weaker ones grow, spread and multiply. With the root cells left alive in the body, they re-form and begin to grow again and again

There is more research going on now, than when Jack's journey began, and that gives us reason to hope. But as always, funding is a huge problem. In Vermont something has become available which could prove invaluable for many of these children. A resource whereby diseased areas can be biopsied and the sample grown in the laboratory, then tested against numerous agents to establish which is the most effective against the particular strain of disease that child carries.

As time passes the disease changes, it evolves into a more aggressive, more resistant fiend, and in each child it is different. Until now, only certain standard chemotherapies have been used to treat the disease. The ability to test and recognise what may prove more effective for one child than another opens the door to personalised treatment... . and speeds the journey to finding the cure.

We arrived in Vermont yesterday, Sunday. And today we met Dr. Sholler. A week of tests will follow, with CT scan on Wednesday and Mibg injection... then MIBG scan on Thursday morning and Bone Marrow biopsies on Thursday afternoon. On Friday Jack will begin Nifurtimox, a radiosensitiser which should have the ability to make the cancer cells more sensitive to the chemotherapy. Thursday's scan will tell us what the position now is with the cancer, whether it has spread quickly, or whether the one cycle of chemotherapy has killed it off. The bone marrow biopsies will be tested to establish what agents may work best at clearing the marrow. By Friday we will have a better idea exactly where we stand. For now it is just nice to have a new doctor, one who has as much fight as Jack has left, and a seemingly as strong a will for Jack to live as Jack has....

Many of you who follow Jack's story could help us now. On 2nd May 2008, approximately 50 Police officers from London will fly to New York and will run over a two day period to try and help us raise funds for research at Vermont. We are still working on the www.j-a-c-k.org website, but hope by next week it will be effective with an online donation system. We need your help to help us publicise the event and help us raise funds for this vital research. Help us put up flyers, send out press releases, send emails to your contact lists at work and at home, just help us spread the news... You could help us save the lives of hundreds of children. A cure is within reach, but lack of money bars the way...