Teen Dying Of Cancer Spends Final Days Raising $88,000 For 6-Year-Old Battling Same Disease

A 19-year-old cancer patient who passed away Tuesday spent his final days raising over $88,000 for a little boy battling the same disease.

Rhys Langford from Ebbw Vale in Wales, U.K., was undergoing chemotherapy for osteosarcoma when he was told he had only a few months to live, BBC reported. Langford heard about 6-year-old Jacob Jones, who was diagnosed with cancer and decided to dedicate the remainder of his time to raise funds for the little boy's treatment.

Langford set up a GoFundMe page for Jacob and donated $1,352 (£1,000) to give it a leg up. With time, he was able to raise a whopping amount of $88,000 (£65,000) and counting, for Jacob's treatment.

The teen was diagnosed with osteosarcoma--a common type of bone cancer that leads to weak bone tissue--in October 2020. The disease had left Langford severely ill and doctors said he has only a few months to live. But the boy fought to survive and underwent painful chemotherapy for 16 months. Things, however, took a turn for the worse when the cancer resurfaced, catapulting him to the threshold of death.

When Langford heard that a little boy being from his city had also been diagnosed with cancer, he did not want Jones to suffer the way he did. "Rhys found the story of little Jacob. He called me upstairs and he was crying in bed reading the story," Catherine Langford, his mother, told Wales Online.

"He said, 'Mum, I want to donate some money to him. He's six years of age and he's been ill since he was two. I'd be over the moon if someone would save him.' I couldn't believe he was thinking about someone else when he's on death's door himself."

“As many of you know I started my cancer journey when I was 18! October 2020 I was diagnosed with osteosarcoma," Langford wrote in the GoFundMe page set up for Jones. "I know nothing can be done for me now but as one of my many last wishes I would like to help Jacob and help him fight this awful disease."

Langford wrote that it was his dying wish to raise a good sum for the future treatment of Jones, who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma--a type of cancer that develops from immature nerve cells found in several areas of the body-- in 2017.

The teen's mother mourned his passing in a post on Facebook, on Tuesday. "My warrior, my hero, my son, my baby, has given up his fight," she wrote. "He lay down his sword and died peacefully at home with all his family around him," Catherine added. "We are heartbroken my life will never be the same again a part of me has died also .. He battled a long hard fight...."