It was the day after Christmas, 2006. Four-year-old Jacob Shear had his annual check-up and his father, Tommy, drove him to the appointment.

Things went wrong quickly, and it is all a blur three-and-a-half years later to Jacob’s mom, Valerie.  His pediatrician felt a mass in Jacob’s abdomen and sent him to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham.

“I don’t (really) know what else happened that day.” Valerie Shear, who was at work at Norhtside Medical when she heard the news, said she called Arbor Baptist Church where she and her family attend services, her family, her friends and anybody she could think of and asked them, “Just pray for us. I don’t know what’s going on, but please pray for Jacob.”

Jacob lost his grandfather two years before after he went into surgury and died two weeks later. Jacob’s only memory from that time was the outcome for someone admited to a hospital.

It was two days after Christmas, the first ultrasound that Tuesday showed Jacob had a mass that nearly covered his kidney. The next day his kidney was hidden by an obstruction and there was a small space on his already small body between his kidey and his liver.

Jacob was put next in next in line for a surgury that would remove his right kidney and, during the five-and-a-half-hour procedure, the four-year-old would eventually leave two lymph nodes behind.

He endured six more days of radiation treatment and 26 weeks of chemotheropy.

“He didn’t understand,” recalls Mrs. Shear. “He kept telling me, ‘I am not sick. Why am I here? I want to go home.’

“How do you explain that to a child?”

Valerie spent every Monday over those 26 weeks accompanying her son to chemotheropy. “He lost his hair and wasn’t as sick as he could have been,” his mom said. There were days that he was tired and would only be able to sit and watch the title screen on his teenaged brother, Cody Rich’s video game system.

Jacob was diagnosed with a Stage 3 Wilms Tumor before his surgery. Wilms is a cancer that has a large survival rate amongst children. The disease has symptoms, but Jacob didn’t show any of those symptoms before his checkup.

Mrs. Shear recalls that the incident brought her and Jacob closer. She said  that “People say, don’t sweat the small stuff. Well, we don’t now.”

Jacob is playing soccer this spring. He played football in the 75-pound league last season.

“Anything he wants to do he’s tackling it,” his mom said.

For families that might be faced with a situation that tries it, Mrs. Shear said, “Don’t lose hope. I believe that they will find a cure. People have to live life to the fullest because you never know if you’ll be hit with something like this.”

This July Jacob will be three years in remission. He turns eight in November. If all goes well, in 2012, he will be declared cancer free.