'I'm not going to make it': Mum shares heart-wrenching photo of cancer-stricken son
A Texas mother has shared a heart-wrenching photo of her 10-year-old son who has spent nearly half his life battling leukemia.
Scared he is going to die in his sleep, the photo of Drake Medinger is not easy to look at but does encapsulate what the crippling disease has made of his young life.
“This is him, Drake, Stinky Joe, my whole world,” his adoring mother Jessica Medinger wrote as she shared the post on a cancer support Facebook group.
"For anyone battling cancer or enduring chemotherapy. For anyone going through this horrible disease. It is about to get real, real hard and real quick.
“He is my smile, my love, my heartbeat. He is also my tears, my heart ache, my frowns. He is my life.”
The image shows a frail and anguished Drake bent over the family toilet with a look on his face that says more than words ever could.
Aware just how confronting the image is, his mum warned readers not to overreact.
“It doesn’t show more than swimming jammers would and because life is not always politically correct and pretty, it is real. Life isn't pretty, and cancer destroys a person,” she wrote.
“This is having your son sleep with you at night because he is afraid of something happening and being alone, and by something I mean dying.
“This is having middle of the night conversations with a ten year old, asking if he dies will he go to heaven and will he see his dad there and be able to talk and play with him.
“This is him and me, telling him that I will continue to fight for him when he can't. This is him and me, and our world.”
Drake was diagnosed with leukemia in September 2012 and underwent crippling spinal taps, blood transfusions and surgery before he even his age hit double figures.
Just when things started looking better, he was struck down again, diagnosed with testicular cancer, starting the fight all over again.
Five days after the sobering photo was taken, Drake was submitted to hospital due to severe dehydration.
Readers responded in force to the small family’s heartbreaking story, heading to a crowdfunding page set up by family members and helping raise more than $30,000 for the growing medical and living expenses.
Drake’s full story can be read here while donations can be madehere.
