Canteen Australia’s push for funding to help young Aussies dealing with cancer

A young Aussie who was relentlessly bullied after losing his mum to cancer is hoping he can give back to Canteen Australia after they helped him through a difficult time.

A young Australian who was relentlessly bullied after losing his mum to cancer when he was just 13 years old is urging people to dig deep to help support Canteen Australia.

Jacob Boutcher’s world was turned upside down when his mum Jodie was diagnosed with the rare acute myeloid leukaemia in 2013.

The Boutcher family had been celebrating Jacob’s 12th birthday when his mum felt unwell.

Doctors quickly discovered her cancer and she spent the next 18 months between Tasmania — where the family lived — and Melbourne for treatment, including two rounds of bone marrow transplant.

Jacob Boutcher with his brother when their mum Jodie wasn’t sick.

“She was getting into a stage when we she might be put into remission that she came over to Tasmania which was a surprise,” Jacob told NewsWire.

“We got to hang out, and then mum was going over (to Melbourne) for a check-up again and everything hit the fan and her body started shutting down.”

Now aged 22, Mr Boutcher recalls those final moments with his mum as she lay in an induced coma.

“At that age I was 13, I didn’t really know what was going on,” he said.
“Nothing really clicked until the moments are happening.

“It was a very shocking experience and obviously being in the room and her life support was being taken off had been a very vulnerable position to be in.”

The Boutcher family always tried to make the most of their time with mum Jodie while she was undergoing cancer treatment. Picture: Supplied

But as the teenager was trying to rectify his grief and learning how to move through the world without his mum, his friends weren’t there to support him in his darkest hours.

“I went from being a 13-year-old boy naive to the world to being quickly mature very fast,” Mr Boutcher said.

“It was like going from a 13-year-old to a 18-year-old mindset.

“My friends were making ‘your mumma’ jokes and silly immature comments.

“I told them ‘this isn’t funny to me anymore, you don’t know when the last moments are.’

“I was very much on the outside.

“I put it down to they didn’t know how to express emotions to someone who has lost a parent so their default was to make fun of them.

“But people I thought were my best friends pushed me out of my friendship circle.”

Struggling with learning to process all these emotions, he stumbled across Canteen.

Jacob Boutcher with his mum Jodie. Picture: Supplied

Australia’s Good Grief camp, which offers support to young Aussies who have dealt with cancer in their lives.

“I was trying to find a new identity and try to figure out what it meant to not have a mum, I was very lonely during that period of time,” Mr Boutcher said.

“But Canteen were able to give me people who had been through people similar and understand what I was going through.

“We’re (now) all one big massive family, I was lucky to have made connections.

“Canteen let me build so many new connections with people who were like minded and understood the grief we were going through.

“It was a way of learning how to express the emotions I was feeling in that moment, and also grieving for having a parent pass away from cancer.”

Jacob Boutcher hopes people will donate to Canteen Australia after they helped him when his mum Jodie died of cancer. Picture: Supplied

Canteen Australia has launched its latest fundraiser in the hopes of raising $416,000 for young people impacted by cancer.

The campaign encourages people to make a taxable donation before June 30 to help kids like Mr Boutcher was get the support they need during a difficult time in their lives.

Mr Boutcher now lives in Melbourne and is studying to become a social worker to help kids go through similar experiences to him.

He said he hopes to continue helping Canteen Australia and other people going through tough times. 

“I just want to give back to people and know that there’s kids out there might feel alone and their not, to have social worker who also has been affected by cancer and can understand,” he said.