When I was a 13-year-old, bone cancer cost me my right leg. Being sick while young is a hard and terrible thing to go through. For the child, for the parents and for siblings.
So when my family heard about the Make-A-Wish Foundation wanting to send us to Disney World, we did that. As many families do – and that is in its own way, a reward for the pain of going through such a horrible illness.
But sometimes, someone like Jude Boussom comes along and sees potential for helping others. That is another way to claw your way out of the terror of being sick. So that’s just what Jude did.
He was offered a Make-A-Wish and wanted to use it to help other sick children throughout the hospitals in his home state of Michigan.
“I wanted to give back to people that had it harder than I did,” the 17-year-old said.
It was pretty amazing to see the joy.”
For Jude, his path to that moment started with extremely painful headaches, along with some memory loss, in 2020. After testing, doctors told his parents what no parent wants to hear – there was a mass growing on Jude’s brain.
Jude Boussom threw Christmas in July for sick kids in Michigan. Photo by Make-A-Wish
“It was one of the worst days of my life,” his father, Jason, said. “The doctors doing the MRI spent a long time in the monitoring booth and they pulled me out and said, ‘Your son has a mass on his brain. He has extreme hydrocephalus, which is a life-threatening condition that we need to address at this moment.'”
Like lightning, the next steps for Jude moved quickly. The young man went immediately into surgery, which required a prolonged stay in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). He spent more than a year suffering from ‘blinding’ headaches.
“There are rarely any more headaches (now after treatment),” Jude said.
While in the ICU, his father was told that Jude qualified for a Make-A-Wish.
“Not knowing much about the organization, we thought it was for terminal kids,” Jason said. The dad went on to learn that while for terminally ill kids, the organization also helps children with critical illnesses, many who go on to live full lives.
“It’s an important part of a child’s medical treatment — a springboard for families going forward,” Jason said.
Wanting his son to have more time to heal, Jason said he waited for a year before telling Jude he could have a wish. But for Jude, the wish he wanted wasn’t for him, it had to be for others at the hospitals.
Santa visits during Christmas in July for sick kids in Michigan hospitals. Photo by Make-A-Wish
“I asked him a couple of times if he was sure about it,” Jason said. “He’s built different than a lot of people — he’s always been caring and wanting other people to be happier and more comfortable than himself. So it didn’t really surprise me.”
We couldn’t be more proud of him,” his father said.
Jude picked this past July and knew what he wanted to give others — Christmas in July!
“… I saw how hard it was for people in the hospital, and knew they could really use some extra help along the way,” he said. “I thought, ‘Why not give them a little extra holiday?'”
When Michael Hull, president and CEO of Make-a-Wish Michigan, heard about Jude’s Wish, he and the organization ‘really went crazy’, he said.
“We made it our mission to make sure that we were walking into every hospital with toys for all ages,” Michael said. “We had technology gifts for the older kids and everything down to Little Tikes for the small kids — it was like a toy chest we set up. And when each child walked in, you could see it on their face. They saw toys, they saw Santa. They were having the best time ever.”
“I’m super thankful for everybody that’s helped me along the way — I couldn’t have done it without all of them,” Jude said. “And I’ll never forget seeing the joy those kids had when they were able to get some presents in the middle of July.”
Watch below for a look at this amazingly unselfish young man and his gift to so many.
