Jack Rivers is known to the Bayside community as a kind, good-natured teen with a heart of gold. An active member of many community institutions, Jack is beloved by many of his leaders and teachers at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School.
However, when Jack began to exhibit strange symptoms in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, he was rushed to the doctor for x-rays of his upper chest. When his doctor saw the images, he told Jack’s family to rush him to the emergency room.
That’s when Jack and his family were informed that there was a large mass close to his lungs. He was immediately diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer that impacts the immune and lymphatic systems.
The diagnosis began at stage 1, but another x-ray of Jack’s lower abdomen revealed a second large mass, and physicians re-evaluated his diagnosis to stage 3 cancer.
Since the diagnosis, Jack’s father, Jon Rivers, has stayed by his son’s side through all of it. While Jack’s prognosis is good, Jon said life will likely never be the same for Jack or the rest of the family.
“There’s the before times — before the diagnosis,” Jon said. “And then there’s the after times.”
Before the diagnosis
Jack was born in Huntington Beach, California, before his family moved to Bayside. Jon, who was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Queens attending public schools 203 and 158, said he was happy to come home and raise his kids in the same district he attended.
Now a sophomore at Cardozo, Jon said, Jack maintains a reputation in the school and the community as a kindhearted kid.
During Jack’s time at M.S. 158, he began playing the trombone in the school’s band under Jennifer Schecter, a music teacher at the school.
“Jack was very memorable,” Schecter recalled. “He was just always very happy to be in band — very enthusiastic, nice and respectful in ways a lot of kids his age weren’t. He just emanated positivity and light when he walked in a room.”
Jack’s talent took him to the Salute to Music Program, a Saturday morning enrichment program which requires students to audition. He played in his school’s jazz and concert bands, and he was eventually nominated for an all-state music festival, which he was accepted into in 8th grade.
“Music just became such an enormous part of his life,” Schecter said. “When he was in middle school, the trombone became an extension of his body. It was part of his identity.”
Jack also began attending Champions Martial Arts, located in Bayside, in 2018, where he met Program Director Asli Kagdaric and Headmaster Michael Mancuso.
Mancuso said Jack was shy at first, but he soon began building confidence.
“Jack’s an amazing kid,” he said. “He’s one of the kindest souls. For a 15-year old, the emotional awareness he has is just truly amazing. He always thinks about others’ feelings.”
He always put others before himself, Mancuso continued, even when he wouldn’t speak up for himself.
Mancuso said it was a big step for Jack to get out in the ring and begin sparring with other students, which inspired a dramatic change in Jack. He began becoming more outspoken and confident, Mancuso explained, and he eventually enrolled in the leadership program to assist other kids.
“A lot of kids really looked up to him,” Mancuso said. “He was very impactful to this community in such a positive way. Kids even now ask me, ‘Where is leader Jack?’”
Strange symptoms
In the months leading up to the diagnosis, Jon said Jack seemed to be very sad and overly-emotional, which was unlike him.
Mancuso recalled a lesson with Jack in which he acted out in a way that was uncharacteristic of him, after which Mancuso had to speak with him. From then on, Mancuso noticed Jack’s breathing was a little heavier.
“He was a little off,” Mancuso recalled. “I thought, you know, teenagers are a little tired when they get to that age. But then he started getting sick and coming to class a little less, which isn’t like him.”
Jon said after Jack entered the ring and began sparring with another student during a lesson at the martial arts school, he was kicked in the chest. After leaving, Jack told his father that his chest was bothering him. When Jon looked, he found small blue dots sprawling across Jack’s chest, although he initially thought it was just a bruise.
Jack then began waking up with a swollen face, although it would go away as the day would go on. After a few days, Jon said he and Jack’s mother assumed he had an allergy to something in his sheets, so they cleaned out his room and washed his sheets with different detergent.
Then, each afternoon, Jack would come home from school with low-grade fevers, which Jon said sat around 99-100 degrees. Jon would give him ibuprofen and it would go away quickly, however.
Jon soon brought Jack to the doctor on a Friday to discuss his strange symptoms, and the doctor ordered x-rays and an ultrasound of Jack’s chest the following Monday.
The night before, Jon said his wife told him to take a look at Jack’s chest. “His whole chest was covered in blue dots,” Jon recalled.
The next day, he brought Jack to the doctor’s office to show him the dots on his chest before getting the x-rays. The doctor told him to have the images sent over to him immediately and that he’d call Jon later that night.
After waiting a few hours, Jon said the doctor called and told him he reviewed the images. He quickly told Jon to escort Jack to the emergency room.
Jon took Jack to Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park and within an hour, they had a diagnosis — Hodgkin lymphoma.
A shock to everyone
Jon said after receiving the diagnosis, he was devastated and immediately began wondering what he did wrong. “It’s like a nuclear bomb — it literally destroys everything,” he said. “You’re looking to blame something, or figure it out. But the doctors said they don’t know where it comes from.”
Jack initially seemed unaffected by the news, Jon recalled, telling his family he would get over it. But a few days later, the realization hit Jack and he began sobbing.
Schecter said she found out about the diagnosis through a colleague whom she carpooled with to the Saturday enrichment program.
“He was like, ‘I don’t know how to start the morning with this conversation, but I have to,’” Schecter recounted. “It was absolutely heartbreaking. Not that you’d wish this on even your worst enemy, but for a kid like Jack, who was so kind and never said a bad thing about anyone and always gave his all — it was beyond devastating.”
She said all she could think about was Jack as they prepared for rehearsal, but it was difficult for her to hold herself together.
As soon as she got home, Schecter continued, she emailed Jon to ask what was going on. Jon eventually called her and told her that Jack was in critical condition at the hospital. Schecter, a mother of two young children, said it was difficult for her to process. “It’s gut-wrenching,” she said. “Like, that’s someone’s baby.”
Kagdaric said it was a huge shock to everyone at the martial arts school because it was the first time anyone at the center experienced anything like it.
Mancuso said it’s been difficult to explain to the martial arts center’s younger kids that Jack is sick and won’t be back for a while.
An exhausting experience
Jack received his diagnosis on Nov. 18 and spent Thanksgiving and the next several weeks at Cohen. He was eventually discharged just before Christmas.
As of now, Jack receives chemotherapy every two weeks and takes a concoction of pills to treat the cancer. The days Jack receives chemo can last 12 hours, Jon said, as they often arrive at 7 a.m. and don’t leave until around 7 p.m.
The doctors at Cohen also told him to call the hospital at any sign of symptoms that concern him so the hospital staff can evaluate Jack, which Jon recently had to do.
Earlier this month, Jon said Jack’s breathing became heavy after walking up the stairs. He rushed him back to the hospital where they learned that Jack was having an adverse reaction to the medications he was taking. His lungs had become swollen, and Jack was immediately admitted to the hospital for another stay.
Hospital stays are rough on Jack, his father said. Because the mass on Jack’s chest is too large to insert a port for easy injections, Jon said his son constantly has to get stuck with needles.
“He was in the dumps,” Jon said. “He was being poked and had to draw blood and put in an IV — all stuff nobody wants to go through.”
Despite Jack’s depression at being readmitted to the hospital, he eventually met another young girl in the cancer ward and spoke with her over the course of his stay.
After being discharged from the hospital a few days later, Jon said Jack was not in high spirits as he expected him to be. Instead, Jack began crying. When Jon asked his son why he was so upset, Jack said it was because he felt bad he left the young girl alone in the hospital.
“He’s just a good kid,” Jon said. “I know a lot of parents say that, but he’s a good kid. I want him to just be a kid.”
Navigating the healthcare system
Every single day is a balancing act, Jon said. He knows if he calls the doctors about symptoms, that means Jack could potentially be admitted, which is extremely unpleasant for him.
“You question everything you’re going to do,” Jon said. “Everything on a daily basis is impacted by this. There’s a lot of support out there, but I’m not in the habit of asking for help.”
Oftentimes, when people ask Jon what he needs, he tells them he just doesn’t know.
Health insurance, on the other hand, has posed significant obstacles to Jon, who is currently being forced to switch insurance and doesn’t know if the new plan will cover his son’s cancer treatments.
“It’s the unknown,” Jon said. “I should be able to get an answer on something like this. The system is a disaster for people facing this diagnosis.”
He said he fights with the insurance company and worries he’ll have to escalate the issue if coverage is not provided for his son’s care. “The system is broken,” he said. “I shouldn’t have to go through this with a 15-year-old boy. I got a life I’m trying to save.”
Jon even pointed to the current Trump administration for failing to protect regulations surrounding the health insurance industry and allowing these corporations to deny coverage.
He said he’s lucky to be in a state like New York, however, because it has strong health and school systems to ease some of the challenges the Rivers family is currently facing.
The community rallies around Jack
Kagdaric said after finding out about the diagnosis, martial arts center staff began floating ideas about how to support Jack’s family. They eventually decided to start a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for whatever needs the Rivers family might have.
As of Jan. 20, over $3,000 have been raised for Jack and his family through GoFundMe alone.
“He has such a strong mindset,” Kagdaric said. “We wanted to kind of tell him he’s gonna be fine and he’s gonna make it because he has that black belt mindset. That’s the mindset that can get you through everything.”
While Jack can’t be around people too much and must wear a mask at all times, Kagdaric said he made a brief appearance at this year’s holiday event so he could speak with his fellow classmates.
Even now, Kagdaric said parents ask for weekly updates and offer to help in any way they can.
Schecter said she emailed the entire staff after finding out about Jack’s diagnosis the Monday before Thanksgiving asking for donations so she could purchase an UberEats gift card to support the family while they were away from home.
Staff immediately sprung into action, buying cards and circulating them around the building. After just two days, Schecter said they’d raised over $500 for the gift card.
“I can’t cure cancer, and I can’t ease his pain,” Schecter said. “But that was the little thing we thought we could do.”
The long road to recovery
Mancuso said Champions wants to do anything they can to help Jack as he continues his road to recovery.
“Where he started and where he is now — there’s just been so much progress,” Mancuso said. “We wanted to just keep building on that, no matter the situation. We just gotta keep him going.”
“Jack is a big part of our school and a big part of our lives,” Kagdaric added. “He’s a great kid, and we know he’s gonna make it through. We’re here for him 100%.”
Schecter said she stays in contact with Jon and Jack regularly and visits every two weeks or so to help cheer Jack up with gifts, such as a custom-made trombone pillow. One week, she made a photo collage of his time at M.S. 158, which the two laughed about sharing stories and jokes.
“Jack was always a funny kid,” Schecter said. “He still is.”
While Jack will have to get used to playing the trombone again, Schecter assured he would rebuild his stamina.
“This experience reminds us all not to take the small things so seriously,” Schecter said. “Jack was a child who never took the small things too seriously and always found light and happiness. Maybe through his struggle, we can all learn to be more like him.”
Jon said Jack is expected to complete his chemotherapy treatments in June and could potentially return to school in late spring, although he said the future is always uncertain.
At this point, Jon said he doesn’t plan for the future at all. Instead, he breaks up his day into hours, trying to finish each day knowing that nothing is promised the next day.
“It’s just — it’s a completely new life,” Jon said. “What we’ve learned in this mess is you put one foot in front of the other.”
Jon said Jack has aspirations to pursue the trombone beyond the high school’s concert band. But until then, Jon said Jack will take it one step, and one breath, at a time.
