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Jack’s journey

  • Weekly update (pushing forward)

      23 June 2024
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    Hi Everyone

    Last week jack had another temperature , the treatment & plan worked well from home without having to visit hospital. After that wee bump We have had a reasonably good week.

    Jack had his routine bloods & ops on Wednesday and they have all came back to the realms of where they need to be which is also good.After his check up he had a chest xray & ultrasound on his entire abdomen.

    We had a zoom meeting Friday with the CHOC team & Nelson team to discuss results from the ultrasound & xray. The BRAF gene inhibitors are doing their job, This means they have stopped the melanoma from spreading further. This is still a ‘B’ option in treatment meaning temporary Because no matter what the melanoma does fined a way passed the inhibitors over time. Now jack has stabilised to a point where he is holding some health for now. We are heading to Christchurch to the CHOC team to revisit the Keytruda as an ‘A’ option treatment that actually fights and kills the melanoma cells. He will be admitted to hospital and monitored very closely over the week. We know now from our last visit to Christchurch how wide spread the melanoma has traveled. We are under no illusion, jack is up against things and with the keytruda stands his best chance. The journey will be a long one & together we are standing strong and he not only has a massive medical team behind him but also a massive family,friends & supporters base from far and wide. We are forever grateful “ALWAYS IN THE FIGHT”

    ❤️ ❤️❤️❤️

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  • Weekly update ( boring is good )

      16 June 2024
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    Hi Everyone

    Well it has been a very slow week even slightly boring. Which is exactly what we needed for a change after such a hectic few months. We had jacks weekly appointment for bloods and ops on Wednesday at Nelson Hospital.

    With the results showing an overall stable test.

    Unfortunately early yesterday afternoon (Saturday)Jack’s temperature spiked again , but this time we were prepared for it and have started the doctors process and treatment from home. He is still immune compromised so we are working through this as a family and doing our best to avoid as many possible complications as we can , also keeping family life as normal as we can.

    We would like to acknowledge our amazing community for the Fundraiser on today.

    The golf Ambrose fundraiser & auction.

    We are so very very humbled & overwhelmed by the support of all the businesses involved the community support, all the teams that have entered & everyone who is involved with the auction from organising through to attending we are forever grateful & thankful of your kindness & support in helping with Jacks Journey.

    And also everyone that has donated via give a little we can’t thank you enough.

    Humanity is strong and together we are strong for jack on his journey standing there with him the whole way “ALWAYS IN THE FIGHT”

    Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts

    Love the Holland Family ❤️

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  • Update ( patchy week )

      9 June 2024
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    Hi Everyone

    Well we had an ok 6 days at home before we needed to re visit Nelson Hospital.

    Jack developed a temperature that required hospital admission to sort out what was happening.

    After a few different tests they took him off the BRAF gene inhibitors to bring his temperature down, and restarted it once he is ok unfortunately at some stage his white blood cell count has bottomed out.

    This means he is extremely susceptible to infection, bugs, cold & flu including Covid.

    Jack immune system is gone and we would appreciate if we had no visitors and unannounced visitors. We can’t stress this enough.

    We have a weekly meeting with the oncology team on Wednesday this coming week and hopefully things will finally plateau out for now.

    We are right in amongst the storm & getting hammered from every angle but we are standing strong with Jack and holding tight. We are due for some sunshine very soon.

    We would like to thank every person , family member and anyone that is following Jacks journey. We appreciate you and appreciate your kind words of love and support , together we are strong. “ALWAYS IN THE FIGHT”

    Love the Holland Family ❤️

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  • Update (first week home)

      2 June 2024
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    Hi Everyone,

    Well it’s been a fairly quiet week which is well needed by Jack and the rest of us.

    We had a weekly visit to Nelson on Wednesday which involved taking bloods , doing observations and removing his PICC line from his arm.

    We had a good talk with the CHOC team in Christchurch the same day and they have had the meeting with the adult oncology team.

    They are happy with Jacks progress over the last 2 weeks and we are heading for scans in 2 more weeks and are looking to stop the BRAF gene inhibitors and revisit the Keytruda.

    Unfortunately we have hit a foot trip and Jack came down with a temperature last night. He did feel better this morning but as the day went on it came back.

    It has hit the hospital mark and we have arrived in Nelson Hospital this afternoon to monitor it and sort out what’s going on. Hopefully just precautionary.

    It is taking a bit for us all to get our heads around just how compromised his immune system is at the moment. To put it bluntly he is extremely fragile. We will know more soon.

    We would like to acknowledge every single person & family for their ongoing support and kind words we are very grateful “AlWAYS IN THE FIGHT”

    Love The Holland Family ❤️

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  • Update ( Discharged & Home )

      26 May 2024
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    Hi Everyone

    It’s been 10 days since “Hell Week” Wednesday 15th & Thursday 16th May when jacks body was failing & we had the awful meeting.

    On Monday 20th May Jack was moved from the higher care & intensive care ward back to the CHOC ward for continuous monitoring for bloods & fluids that his body was retaining.

    Jacks body was picking up as the week progressed but the obvious signs are there that he & his body have been punished like no healthy persons body should be.

    On Friday morning Jack was officially discharged from Christchurch Hospital. We celebrated by going to watch a private Captain’s Run with the Crusaders and attended their game Saturday with very Special VIP front row seats and a 1 on 1 meet & greet after the game.

    We left Christchurch this morning after 3 weeks and a life changing diagnosis.

    From here: There are a lot of important pills Jack needs to take & we will be doing weekly visits to Nelson Hospital for bloods & things under the watchful eyes of the Christchurch oncology Department.

    It will take a while for Jack to recover somewhat back to stable before we can revisit the “Keytruda” in a few months time with his already compromised immune system.

    We are very Blessed to have all your support , love & kindness we are “Forever Grateful & ALWAYS IN THE FIGHT”

    Love from the Holland Family ❤️

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  • Update (unmeasurable news)

      20 May 2024
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    Hi Everyone.

    How & where to begin.

    It has been an extremely hard week for jack & his family to say the least.

    We have been to Hell & back.

    After been admitted to hospital early Friday morning 10th May jacks body started to crash

    For reasons that were unclear.

    After been released from the “ Higher Care & Intensive Care Wards” we now know Jack has Stage 4 Advanced Melanoma.

    Because of this the oncology team has stopped the Keytruda for now & are focusing on Targeted gene therapy (BRAF gene inhibitors) they may revisit the keytruda later once jack is stable. Tracy & I have had the overwhelming meeting with the heads of the oncology team to discuss jacks survival strategies. Because Jack has Stage 4 Advanced Melanoma cancer that is wide spread,

    Pembrolizumab “Keytruda” & BRAF gene therapy is now funded. The team has also advised us we may need the give a little fund down the track So this will go towards our Family’s travel expenses, accommodation ect but most importantly Jack’s quality of life.

    We are so grateful to the CHOC team , the higher care team & the ICU team for their work and compassion during this extremely stressful and challenging time which Jack and his family have had. “ALWAYS IN THE FIGHT”

    We would also like to thank all our family & friends, community and wider community, people from far and wide for your support, love & kind words we are forever grateful.

    Love the Holland Family ❤️

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    • 21/05/2024 by Debbie

      My thoughts are with you all x stay strong and keep in the fight x

  • Weekly update (immunotherapy week)

      12 May 2024
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    Hi Everybody,

    Well it’s been an extremely difficult week to say the least.

    Last Sunday when we arrived in Christchurch jack started feeling unwell and nauseated. We had the meeting Monday & jack started the immunotherapy on Tuesday come Wednesday he was still nauseated from Sunday (before the treatment) he has hardly eaten anything all week and is extremely lethargic & unwell,Jack was admitted back to hospital Friday morning where they have put him on an I V and ran a few tests and did an xray of his chest to discover he has a chest infection under lying, he is on antibiotics to help the chest infection, he has also had an abdomen ultrasound and will need further scans as it is inconclusive. He will be getting the scans tomorrow but for now we are still in Christchurch hospital and they are treating his chest infection. The immunotherapy treatment went well with no obvious side effects or reactions (chest infection began before treatment) it has not been a good week and there is lots going on in jacks body right now surgery recovery, treatment, chest infection ect , he is certainly in the fight and standing in the middle of the storm we are holding his hand and standing right beside him. Our Family would like to thank everyone for their ongoing support, love & kind words we are very grateful ❤️

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  • Weekly update (Christchurch hospital)

      5 May 2024
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    Hi Everyone

    A fairly quiet week leading up to today.

    Fridays meeting with the head of the surgery team was to remove the stitches and discuss the results from the lymph nodes.

    There were 73 lymph nodes removed in total and 6 of them had heavy traces of cancer in them.

    Because of this the surgery team has put forward to the oncology team that jack should have radiation therapy as well as immunotherapy.

    Not the greatest news but it is another form of treatment to help stop the disease spreading.

    We have arrived in Christchurch this morning and have a meeting tomorrow to discuss immunotherapy & radiation treatment.

    Some blood work & of course lots of paper work.

    We won’t know any more until our meeting tomorrow.

    We are in Christchurch till Thursday at this stage and all going well we will head home with Jack having had his first immunotherapy treatment done at least.

    Again we would like to thank everyone for their love , support & donations for making Jack’s treatment possible. We are so very humbled and extremely grateful for everyone’s help ❤️ lots of love from the Holland Family ❤️

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  • Weekly update (recovery week)

      29 April 2024
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    Hi Everyone

    Well it’s been a slow week at Home for recovery.

    Jack has had an up & down time with pain.

    He has been given a new corse of pain treatment to help ease things a little.

    This week we are heading into a meeting this Friday 3rd May in Nelson to remove the stitches (2week mark) but also talk about the results from the pathology team on the lymph nodes & nerve that were removed as well as Mondays immunotherapy treatment schedule.

    We are sure the week will fly by fast and we are positive we will receive some good results from Fridays meeting.

    Thank you to everyone who is following Jack’s journey. If you would like to see any video updates follow the link on this page to my instagram page “wild river south”.

    Thank you also for your love ❤️ and support during this time and especially the Donations that will help with Jack’s essential treatment needed to fight this awful disease. We will update you next weekend with results from Friday. Love from the Holland Family ❤️

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  • Weekly update (after the operation)

      21 April 2024
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    Hi Everyone

    Jack had his “Neck dissection & lymph node removal” operation on Friday 19th.

    It was approximately 6 hours with his right side neck muscle been removed his right side shoulder nerve removed & all the lymph nodes on his right side removed. He took a little while to come out of recovery due to his pain level (to be expected). He has been quite sleepy but in good spirits. He has been eating and also had a good walk around the ward today ( must keep moving for the 2 neck drains to work properly)

    He also had 1 neck drain taken out with 1 still in and will be for a few more days.

    We are expecting to be going home Wednesday the 24th on the 6th day at this stage and all going well. All the doctors have been communicating and have organised a plan for two weeks after Jack’s surgery to give him a bit of time to recover. The plan is to head to Christchurch 6th of May for approximately 4 days to start his immunotherapy. That will be the start of a 12month course of keytruda.

    I will keep you all posted as Jack’s journey unfolds. Thank you all for the messages of love & support we so extremely grateful for your donations, support & positive energy ❤️ lots of love the Holland Family ❤️

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  • Weekly update (before the operation)

      13 April 2024
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    Hi Everyone

    Well it’s been a quiet week since the meeting last Friday. We have spent a bit of time working out Flights & accommodation as well as communication with Lower Hutt hospital. Check in times , going over the surgery & post op as well with physiotherapist ect. We will fly to Wellington on this coming Thursday 18th April and jack will go to hospital the 19th Friday morning. As said in the last update after surgery and as soon as Jack is stable we head to Christchurch to start his immunotherapy. We will keep everyone updated as the journey unfolds. Thank you everyone for your love , support & encouragement during this time and we are so grateful for your donations ❤️ love the Holland Family

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  • Weekly update part 2

      5 April 2024
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    Hi Everyone

    We had an extremely in-depth meeting with the surgeon & head of the plastic surgery team today regarding jacks operation, the amount of melanoma in the lymph nodes requires removal first via “ regional lymph node neck dissection” it is a major surgery that will require up to 7days in Lower Hutt Hospital & following that we head down to Christchurch to start immunotherapy which will be a 12 month course and lots of scans. We have our path and direction now and jack is walking towards the storm in front of him strong and standing tall with every single one of us by his side. The next few months will be tough but with everyone’s support, love & encouragement we will fight this with jack. We can’t thank you enough for the donations given to help this journey happen ❤️ our hearts are full ❤️ Love from the Holland Family

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  • Weekly update part 1

      4 April 2024
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    Thank you so much for your donations this week there has been some amazing support from the New Zealand & Overseas community helping Jacks journey we are extremely grateful & humbled by your generosity so thank you. Jack is ok for now and had a fun Easter weekend with his friends camping & motorbike riding. We as a Family are gearing up for the meeting tomorrow in Nelson with the surgeon & team about jacks last results where they have found the melanoma to be in his lymph nodes on the right side of his jaw & neck. We will be discussing options around surgery & treatments. We will do another update tomorrow part 2 about how and where Jacks journey is going. Much love From the Holland Family ❤️ p.s there will be a video update on my instagram page wild river south as well follow the link on the give a little home page.

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  • Weekly update

      28 March 2024
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    Firstly Thank you for all your donations so far we are extremely grateful for how fast people have rallied together and are raising the funds needed for jack , much love everybody ❤️ (also I do respond personally to every donation made it is not computer generated ❤️ Thank you so much).

    We Received the Results yesterday from jacks biopsy last week unfortunately not what we wanted to hear , they have found a large amount of the cancer in his lymph nodes in his neck and now we are faced with an extremely hard decision of major surgery first to remove the lymph nodes or immunotherapy first and monitor the progress, either way immunotherapy will happen. The surgery will be a major procedure with big risks involved. We have a meeting next week with the plastics team to go over everything involved and plenty of questions. Scary times for our family but we are staying strong for our jack with all the love and support from everyone ❤️

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    • 28/03/2024 by Sian

      So sorry to hear. Kia kaha team.

  • Weekly update

      21 March 2024
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    Hi everyone, today we went to Nelson Hospital for Jack to get a lymph node biopsy in his neck after the PET scan on 5th March in Wellington. The scan showed some abnormal lymph node behaviour which required further investigation hence the biopsy today. Results coming next week and a meeting with the medical team the week after that , including in that meeting will be a plan for immunotherapy.

    Jack is doing well for now and is in good spirits and very positive. We the Holland Family are extremely grateful and humbled by eveyones love, support and generosity thank you for your very kind donations.

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    • 23/03/2024 by Alaya

      hey you dont know me but i wish jack the VERY best and hope he fights the cancer, he has some very good people by his side to support him through all of this. i just know he is gonna make it through this and be himself again and wont have to deal with the cancer any longer.