Benefield: After long wait, Windsor High sophomore who beat cancer gets his dream trip to Hawaii

When I asked Jacob Knudsen’s buddy Miles Swarner to pick one word to describe his friend, he paused barely a beat before answering.

“Tenacious,” Swarner said.

Knudsen, standing at Swarner’s side Tuesday evening at his Windsor home, joked, “What does that mean?”

“Tenacious means to not give up or to be persistent,” Swarner said, smiling.

Nailed it.

Jacob Knudsen, 15, is nothing if not someone who refuses to give up.

First diagnosed with cancer at 12, Knudsen has endured more in his young life than many of us have experienced in decades more.

But on Tuesday, Knudsen wasn’t focused on enduring, he was focused in hula-ing.

On Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area’s radar since his initial diagnosis of osteosarcoma — bone cancer — three years ago, Jacob is finally getting his wish: A trip to Hawaii with his mom Isabel, dad Chris and younger brother Josh.

To celebrate finally getting this wish, the Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area folks invited hula dancers to the Knudsen’s family home in Windsor. There was pizza, a videographer, a photographer and generally a big splash.

And Jacob — and three of his best friends — gamely hula’d and danced to mark the big event.

Jacob’s trip marks the 9,000th wish granted by the nonprofit group for people with life-altering illnesses in nearly 40 years of work. The territory covers western California from Monterey to the Oregon border.

But making Jacob’s trip happen hasn’t been easy, because Jacob’s road hasn’t been altogether smooth.

The disease was discovered after he fell while rollerskating when he was 12. A normal fall, but it hurt like the dickens. And the pain didn’t abate.

Isabel wondered if it was growing pains.

It wasn’t.

It was cancer.

“It was obviously heartbreaking and confusing,” Isabel said.

He started chemotherapy immediately. He had what doctors called “limb salvage” surgery on his right leg just before Christmas of his seventh grade year.

“After surgery he had to relearn how to walk,” Isabel said. “He was very determined about his physical therapy. He really, really cared about getting back to who he was.”

More than once, Chris Knudsen spied his son playing basketball using crutches.

“I’m very competitive,” Jacob said. “I’ll compare myself to everybody else. But I did work really hard at PT.”

Jacob finished chemotherapy in May 2020.

In the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jacob returned to a hybrid school schedule. It wasn’t an easy choice, Isabel said. The family had isolated and been so careful for so long.

But her son deeply missed his friends, missed school and missed doing normal things.

“Osteosarcoma is so aggressive and so awful,” Isabel said. “We were afraid … but we let him go.”

It was great for his spirits. The same pals who shaved their heads for Jacob when he was enduring chemotherapy were back to seeing him everyday.

In May 2021, the family celebrated Jacob’s having been cancer free for one year. They went to San Francisco, they saw the San Francisco Giants play.

But then a regular scan of Jacob’s lungs showed something. He had been having clean scans but the latest were not.

A nodule was removed from his lung. Doctors confirmed it was cancerous.

“It was devastating and terrifying,” Isabel said. “Relapsed osteosarcoma has no proven cure.”

There are treatments, there are success stories, but there are no proven cures, she said.

He started chemotherapy at the start of his freshman year at Windsor High School but it was agonizing. They halted the treatments after four months.

He had more surgeries. But Jacob being Jacob, he also played baseball.

“He was going to school as much as he can, going to spring baseball as much as he can,” Isabel said. “It’s all he cares about, ‘When can I play baseball again?’”

“Baseball really lifts his spirits,” she said.

Isabel, an elementary school teacher who has been on and off of leave from work since Jacob’s initial diagnosis, deeply researched trials he could participate in. She found one in Seattle.

He was accepted.

He’s been going to Seattle approximately once a month since May. Treatments are on Friday and he’s back in class on Monday.

It seems to be working. His scans are clear.

And on Tuesday, as he thanked friends, families and those rooting for him at his Make-A-Wish celebration, Jacob was clear: He’s cancer free.

And he’s grateful.

For the trip to Hawaii next week, yes, but also for the bravery of his family and the support from his friends.

And for a wisdom that has been hard won at such an early age.

He laughed on Tuesday about fretting about a Spanish assignment he missed.

At first the thought, “Oh crap.” Then he thought, “Oh well.”

There are things to stress about and there are things to let go.

“I think it’s a silver lining that will help me through my whole life,” he said.

Isabel sees it in her son.

Jacob had to say goodbye to his childhood at 12, she said.

“There are certain times where he’s a normal teenager” who gets upset, she said. “But there are other things where he thinks, ‘That’s not a concern of mine.’”

Isabel said this trip to Hawaii that they will take next week was a focus, a goal for her son. It was something to look forward to when things got dark.

“He spent a lot of time daydreaming about it,” she said.

It doesn’t mark the end of Jacob’s treatment, he still goes to Seattle once a month, but he’s cancer free and feeling great now.

“No, he’s not done. He’s still in treatment,” Isabel said. “But you can’t stop living just because everything isn’t perfect. We are not going to save things for later.”

Jacob thinks back to his initial diagnosis three years ago.

He can still hear the words of at least one doctor telling him that baseball, that running — things that literally make him go — were likely a thing of the past.

The guy who did a mean hula dance in front of a pretty healthy crowd of well-wishers Tuesday had different ideas.

“I want to show kids that sometimes the impossible is possible,” he said. “And I want to do my best to do what makes me happy.”

You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.