Teen Who Died Of Cancer Donates Life Savings To 6-Year-Old In Need Of Treatment For Neuroblastoma
They never met each other.
Langford Family/GoFundMe Rhys Langford, a 19-year-old teenager from Wales has died after giving his life savings to the 6-year-old, Jacob Jones who was suffering from a rare type of cancer.
Langford had been suffering from cancer as well. He was first diagnosed with osteosarcoma in October 2020. After going through intense treatment, he became cancer-free in August 2021.
However, his celebration was short-lived as his cancer returned in October much worse than before.
After struggling for a couple of months, Langford was told that he can’t be saved. He tragically died in January 2022.
Rhys Langford's dying wish was for Jacob Jones to get treatment for cancer.
After Langford found out that nothing could be done for him, he wanted to help someone else. When Langford was going through treatment, he came across Jones’ story.
The 6-year-old had a rare type of cancer, neuroblastoma and had been suffering through it for most of his life. Jones is from the same town as Langford but they had never met each other.
After he found out about Jones, he immediately donated his life savings which were £1,000 ($1,360).
However, Langford didn’t want to stop there. Even though he gave his life savings to Jones and his family, he knew it wasn't enough.
His mom, Catherine Langford mentioned that he asked her about Jones. She said, "Rhys is bedridden now and he called me and asked me if I’d heard about Jacob, this little boy who was battling cancer again."
She said further, “He said, ‘Mum, I want to donate some money to him. He’s six years of age and he’s been ill since he was two. I’d be over the moon if someone would save him.'”
Catherine fulfilled her son’s last wish and created a GoFundMe page for Jones.
Catherine started a GoFundMe page with a goal of £20,000 ($27,197). They have already raised more than £65,000 ($88,392).
Catherine even shared Rhys’ story on the page and wrote on behalf of him.
“Reading about little Jacob and his own fight and his cancer relapse has really upset me.”
She further wrote, “I know nothing can be done for me now but as one of my many last wishes I would like to help Jacob and help him fight this awful disease.”
After knowing about this, Jones’ family was quite grateful to Rhys.
There is an appreciation post to Rhys on the Facebook page for Jones.
‘Jacob’s Fight’ is a Facebook page created for Jones to help raise money for his treatment. The page gives information and more insight into Jones’ illness.
The page explains how Neuroblastoma is quite rare and difficult to treat as much of the treatment is experimental.
Rhys knew the effects of heavy treatment on one's body. So, he wanted to help save someone’s life with the hope that no one goes through what he went through.
After Rhys died, Jacob’s Facebook page posted a little tribute to him and referred to him as Jacob’s “hero”.
The post reads, “I wanted to let everyone know that [Jacob's] hero Rhys has sadly passed away, our thoughts are with his family at this sad time, fly high Rhys and we are all so proud and thankful for what you did for our Jacob.”
Sanika Nalgirkar, M.F.A. is a writer who covers entertainment & news, lifestyle, and pop culture topics.