On September 8th, 2004, one month shy of his 13th birthday, Jeffrey Hayden passed away after an eight month battle with brain cancer. In the fall of 2003, as Jeff was beginning the 6th grade, he started having frequent headaches. He was seen by his pediatrician, but nothing serious was indicated. Then in December of 2003, he experienced coordination problems, along with severe mood swings that were getting progressively worse. By this time his doctor suspected something more serious was behind his problems and ordered an MRI.

On January 14th, 2004 we received the worst possible news any parent could imagine. Jeff was diagnosed with an inoperable malignant brain tumor called a diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma and was given less than 12 months to live. The tumor was the size of a golf ball and was located on his brain stem. Prior to his diagnosis, Jeff was an active 12 year old enjoying life. He excelled in the classroom and on the playing field. He enjoyed baseball, soccer, football, golf, bowling, swimming and basketball, but most of all he enjoyed school.

Jeff was the third of three children (triplets) born on October 17th, 1991 in Walnut Creek California. Jeff’s sister, Jennifer passed away shortly after birth due to complications of a high risk pregnancy. Jeff leaves behind his best friend and brother Joseph.

Let me tell you a little about our wonderful young man…

Jeff was a competitor, he loved playing sports and he loved a challenge.  His favorite sports were baseball and basketball. He was the home run hitter and played pitcher and catcher on the baseball team. His wicked fastball and ability to throw out base runners turned heads on the baseball diamond. He was the starting center on the football team and was a finalist the past three years in the annual skills competition. In his early years he played goalie and mid fielder for his soccer team. One of his favorite sports was basketball. Jeff was a good ball handler and he loved to shoot the three pointers.

After his diagnosis he joined a bowling team, entered a few tournaments and even won one. He fell in love with golf and would hit hundreds of balls every week on the driving range. We played almost very week and he was looking forward to trying out for the school team. He learned how to play bumper pool and some card games. Texas Hold’em was his favorite and would go “All in” at every opportunity. He was the undisputed champion of Scrabble within our family and always was looking for a willing challenger to test his skills.

Jeff was a gifted student and earned straight A’s every year. What is amazing to us is that even as he was going through his treatments, missing school and dealing with a deadly disease he maintained straight A’s. His teacher at Freedom Elementary, Mrs. Ebbing, was a Saint. She and Jeff had this OSU/Michigan rivalry that has become legend. She would send his work home with his brother and he would sit there for hours doing his assignments. And as he completed each assignment he would get his reward, two Jolly Ranchers from Mrs. Ebbing (one blue and one yellow...Michigan colors.)

Jeff was looking forward to Junior High and didn’t want to fall behind. He kept a journal of the things that made him happy that contained his thoughts, favorite sayings, poems, stories and drawings. It is one of our most treasured items. One of those sayings is permanently engraved on a plaque which hangs on the wall of Ridge Jr. High. It became the theme of an award which will be handed out annually to a noteworthy 7th grade scholar athlete at the Fall Sports Banquet. It reads… “Never Give Up! Set goals that seem impossible, with perseverance you can see how easy they are to achieve.”

Once Jeff was diagnosed, he was immediately put on a steroid drug called decadron to control the swelling in the brain and relieve pressure. The side effect of this drug was obvious to everyone that saw Jeff on a daily basis. His face became round and he gained nearly 40 pounds. His treatment consisted of six weeks of radiation combined with a chemotherapy drug called Topotecan, which was given by IV before every radiation session. His tumor did respond to the initial treatment and he was symptom free for about 4 months; however, he had to deal with the side effects of losing his hair and gaining weight. After radiation and chemo we started Jeff on a program of vitamin and protein supplements to boost his immune system. This was accompanied by another chemo drug called Temodar. This drug is taken orally for 5 days and then off for 23 day. It had shown some promise in holding off tumor growth in other patients.

We noticed some tumor symptoms return in July, so we had another MRI. This one confirmed disease progression and was cause for concern. Jeff was enrolled in a Phase II Clinical Trial out of Children’s in Columbus with an experimental chemo drug called Zarnestra. This drug is taken orally for 21 days straight, then nothing for 7 days. This is one cycle. The hope was that this new drug would slow the tumor growth and give Jeff more time. He continued taking the vitamin and protein supplements along with some alternative medicine involving liquid minerals and antioxidants. But in the end, nothing worked and the tumor continued to grow.

What is amazing is that through it all he never complained, he never cried and he never wanted to hear bad news. He maintained a positive attitude and truly believed that he would beat this. Jeff was a fighter, he was independent and he was our buddy and best friend. He tried like heck to beat this thing. He wanted desperately to get past this illness and get on with his life. He was so inspired by his doctor at Children’s that he changed his mind from wanting to be a architecture design engineer to a medical researcher, because he wanted to help find a cure for this dreaded disease.

More of Jeff’s Story can be found on his web site located at www.jeffreyh.com.