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Jacob Priestley, aka Mighty Jake, celebrated his 13th birthday on Friday, Aug. 28.
Last year Jacob received nearly 200 birthday cards to read while he was in the hospital. With the help of Fox 10 News, a crusade was started to surpass that amount this year.
To date, Mighty Jake has received more than 4,000 birthday cards.
Safe to say, mission accomplished.
As you may recall, Jacob is the now-teenage boy who suffers from Mitochondrial Disease, a terminal disease that affects his organs and cells.
According to the Adventures with Mighty Jake Facebook page, the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury basketball team delivered an additional 500 cards on his birthday.
So far, Jacob’s most special card came from popular teen-violinist Lindsey Stirling, who is from Gilbert. He’s met the teen-sensation performer at least once before.
Mighty Jake’s mom, Britney, writes a blog to provide updates and feelings about her son’s journey. In a recent post, she wrote that she asked Jacob if he could do anything in the world, what would he choose?
His list included: meeting a you-tuber, meeting Lindsey Stirling again, a trip to Disney World, and going to see the Diamondbacks with the opportunity to meet some players. The latter is one of his favorite things to do, according to his mom.
Britney, who says she tells Jacob he may not get to do everything he wants, wrote on the Facebook page that Jacob can’t travel to Disney World because his medical needs prohibit him from leaving the state.
Still, Jacob says he wants to go outside. But because he is unable to regulate his body temp, Jacob is at increased risk of heat stroke in Arizona, preventing him from going outside in the Phoenix area.
He can, however, go outside in some of the cooler cities around Arizona, where Britney says she will let him outside “for a while and enjoy nature.”
Their plans include visiting a different part of Arizona every weekend, going places Jacob has never been to. Their travels will be posted on the Mighty Jake Facebook page.
A GoFundMe account has been setup to donate money for Jacob’s travel expenses. So far $865 of the $2,000 goal has been raised.
You can visit the Adventures with Mighty Jake Facebook page at http://on.fb.me/1JrIFEu to read more about Mighty Jake and to get a link to the GoFundMe page.
Britney’s blog can also be found here: http://mightyjake.blogspot.com/.
Andrew Luberda began writing for Copper Area News Publishers (CANP) in February 2013 after working 15 years in Healthcare Financial Management. Andy covers sports for 11 high schools. His stories are published in Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner and Superior Sun, in addition to the San Tan Valley Daily PRSS and CopperArea websites. Additionally, he has written human interest stories and business profiles. In May 2012, he earned an AAS in Sports Management at Central Arizona College before graduating with a BS in Communication from Arizona State University in 2014. He and his wife, Kelli, have three sons – AJ, Kyle, and Kade.
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