Jenson Wright is a 9 year-old boy who managed to beat an aggressive form of cancer thanks to a stem cell transplant using a donor’s umbilical cord.

Jenson was just 4 years-old when he was diagnosed with lymphoma at the end of 2013. He was able to beat the cancer the first time using chemotherapy treatments, but it came back more aggressive than before, this time spreading to 70 percent of the child’s body.

Jenson, who is from England, underwent two more rounds of chemotherapy, but the treatments did nothing to help his situation. The only option he had left was a stem cell transplant using an umbilical cord from a donor in Texas, and he underwent the operation in December of 2016.

Two years later, Jenson has been completely cured of cancer and is a normal, healthy little boy!

A 2013 scientific study explained how exactly this works.

“Umbilical cord blood is an alternative … stem cell source for patients with hematologic diseases who can be cured by allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation,” the study stated. “Initially, umbilical cord blood transplantation was limited to children, given the low cell dose infused. Both related and unrelated cord blood transplants have been performed with high rates of success for a variety of hematologic disorders and … diseases in the pediatric setting.”

Jenson’s family was overjoyed at the news.

“It came completely out the blue, it was a complete shock. It was quite emotional when they said it because you never expect to hear those words when you’ve been going through so much,” said his mother Carolyn. “Jenson took it in his stride – he was quite blasé about it really. I don’t think the severity of the illness he had has ever really hit him. We’re quite fortunate because he was so young at the time he was diagnosed, so he didn’t really understand it like an adult would.”

Carolyn had spent two years living in fear that the cancer would return, which is why it came as a welcome surprise when doctors said he was cured completely.

“It’s always in the back of your mind, wondering what the tests they’re doing are going to find,” the mother said. “That’s why it was such a shock when they said he was cured, and that they didn’t want to see him again – it’s a bit surreal really. He can just be like any other child again now.”

Carolyn completely credits the stem cell transplant with saving her son’s life.

“The early stages of the treatment were quite hard to comprehend, and quite difficult for us emotionally,” said Carolyn. “Without the transplant we would be in a completely different situation – that saved him. We will never get to find out who the donor was, but by donating it, they’ve given life to somebody else. In the last two years, we’ve managed to get our lives back to some normality.”

Jenson’s family recently enjoyed a celebratory meal over the news that he is cured.

“He’s actually got different DNA now because of the stem cell transplant – he’s basically been reborn again,” she pondered. “Now it’s just a case of getting our heads around the fact that this part of our lives is over, and hopefully we won’t have to revisit it again. We can just enjoy our future.”