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Warwick Smith / Stuff
Terminal cancer patient Jacob Coker, 16, and his mother, Amanda Coker, are planning a trip to the South Island to finish Jacob’s wish list.
A month is not a long time, but for Jacob Coker it represents a window of desire in which to accumulate as many life experiences for himself and happy memories for his family, as he can.
His family in Tararua is doing everything they can to help the terminally ill teenager complete his wish list through a four-week adventure on the South Island.
Jacob, 16, was first diagnosed with synovial sarcoma in late 2016. The rare tissue cancer is seen in only about one in three million people and has a 10-year survival rate of 34%.
He beat the odds and got the nod a year later, only for the cancer to reappear in his lungs a week before Christmas in 2019.
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Warwick Smith / Stuff
Jacob with his companion dog Chi-Chi. Jacob survived a terminal cancer diagnosis in 2016. He has now been diagnosed with a different and extremely rare form of cancer.
Jacob hopes he has two years to live and is looking forward to one last great adventure while he can.
“I want to see the southern lights, go to Hanmer Springs, go whale watching, take a helicopter flight over Mount Cook, all that touristy stuff.”
His parents, Greg and Amanda Coker, and three younger siblings, Sarah, Ryan, and Katie, plan to take Jacob on a tour of the South Island in late March.
A $ 20,000 loan against his home in Dannevirke financed Jacob’s North Island travel wish list leg, and community support was being sought to assist with the journey south.
Greg Coker said he intended to work longer at his job as a prison guard to fund it, but has not been able to work since a prisoner brutally beat him in October.
Nathn Trethown / Supplied
One of the items on Jacob’s wish list is seeing the southern lights, shown here from Port Hills in Christchurch.
“It will be good to just relax and forget about everything,” said Jacob, “because 2020 [was] a real shit show, for us and everyone else, to say the least. “
The year had started on a hopeful note. Jacob had two tumors removed and the family was hired to take the adrenaline junkie on a trip to Australia and its Gold Coast amusement parks.
Then the Covid-19 pandemic struck and the borders were closed.
As the year progressed, it became clear that Jacob’s chemotherapy was not working and doctors were left without practical treatment options.
Cancer has also taken its toll on the adolescent’s body. Jacob has a large hernia on his left side that cannot be operated on due to all the scar tissue and radiation damage from his treatments.
Regardless, he remains Zen calm about his situation and tries to stop worrying about things he cannot change.
“Especially with the hand that I have been dealt, I always try to find the bright side.”
He believes that his illness has given him much more time with his family and loved ones, bringing them closer. There have been incredible experiences together, from a Make-A-Wish foundation trip to Disneyland to tandem skydiving in Taupō.
Amanda Coker said people often told the family that they were lucky to have those opportunities, and they were, but she was never able to balance her son’s illness.
“We would change everything so that Jacob doesn’t have to go through this.”
A Givealittle page has been reactivated supporting Jacob to help raise money for the family’s adventure in the South Island.
