Salisbury, UK: Jake Swinscoe’s hayfever turned out to be cancer, now his mum’s trying to boost early detection

A mum is delivering on a wish made by her teenage son before his death from cancer, which was initially thought to be hayfever.

When Jake Swinscoe presented with hayfever symptoms to his mum, Lynsey Swinscoe, cancer did not ever cross her mind as being responsible.

She put his stuffy nose, watery eyes, and tiredness down to seasonal allergies, and started giving him antihistamines.

Once his nose bridge began to swell, Lynsey started to worry.

Jake was diagnosed with an aggressive form of soft tissue cancer, stage three alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma.

“It was really difficult to get our heads round because Jake had seemed so well up until that point,” his mum told the BBC.

“It was really hard to imagine that he had a cancerous tumour actually the size that it was - the size of an egg.”

Despite nine rounds of chemotherapy and 28 sessions of proton beam radiotherapy, the cancer spread to the fluid around his brain and spinal cord.

“He made what I think is the most brave decision in the world,” Lynsey said of his decision to stop treatment.

“I remember having a conversation with him where he told me that if he didn’t have long to live then he’d rather live without constantly feeling tired and sickly.”

Ten months after Jake’s diagnosis, he died two weeks before his 14th birthday in April 2024.

“The only thing that Jake was scared about really - it wasn’t dying itself - it was the fact that he thought that he’d be forgotten,” his mum said.

“So I promised him that he obviously will never be forgotten.”

Now the 43-year-old, who has a 19-year-old daughter, is training to become a radiotherapist to help others like her son.

It was initially an x-ray that detected the mass in his nasal cavity.

Lynsey has also partnered with CCLG: The Children and Young People’s Cancer Association to help promote early detection and diagnosis.

She told The Mirror that her son’s final four weeks at home were spent enjoying time as a family.

“Jake was incredibly calm,” she said.

“He simply said, ‘We tried our best.’

“One of the things he said that always makes me smile was, ‘At least I won’t have to deal with the cost-of-living crisis’.”

Lynsey added that before he died, Jake gave instructions for his funeral.

“He wanted a blue coffin and specific songs played like Here Comes The Sun by the Beatles,” she said.

“It showed the kind of person he was, thoughtful and remarkably mature for someone so young.”

Describing his funeral to The Sun, she said that after the celebrant’s speech, Happy by Pharrell Williams started playing.

“We all started dancing and his friends formed a line and did the conga down the aisle to his coffin and back, stopping to give it a high-five or tap to say goodbye; I can’t think of the funeral without smiling,” she said.

“I’m so proud of Jake and the maturity he showed when accepting there was nothing more the doctors could do.

“He had so much life to live, and we miss him so much.”

Now, through her studies and work with CCLG, she is working to raise awareness of childhood cancer symptoms.

“For Jake it was fatigue and hay fever and I had no idea that those could be potential symptoms of cancer,” she told the BBC.