“The best gift ever”; 12-year-old gives brother life-saving bone marrow transplant

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    CLARKSVILLE, TN (WSMV) — Christmas morning will bring a lot of big smiles when many tear into those perfectly wrapped packages to see what’s inside.

Someone in Clarksville said he has already received the best gift ever this year.

“Hey! You need to put some on this side,” said 12-year-old Jack Phifer, directing the icing on a gingerbread house in progress.

Gifts were all wrapped and ready for the Phifers a few feet away. Mom Sonya, dad Rick, and daughter Jaiden joined competitive brothers Nick and Jack around the gingerbread house.

“We play on XBOX together,” said Jack. “He says he’s better than me on some games, but he’s not. He can just believe that.”

Nick, who is 13, laughed.

“I’m not bad at Fortnite,” Jack continued. “He’s just too good.”

Being all together at their Clarksville home has never felt more important to the family.

Two years ago, Nick was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a bone cancer of his left thigh.

“I was sad,” said Nick. “It was scary. I was just like, ‘why is this happening to me? Out of everybody, why me?'”

What followed was many days at the hospital, surgery, chemo treatments and a diagnosis of pre-leukemia.

“We would hear how sick he was, and it was just sad,” said Jack. “It was just heartbreaking.”

Nick needed a bone marrow transplant, but a match wasn’t far away. It was Jack.

“My heart sank because I was scared,” said Jack. “I knew it was going to help him, so I was excited at the same time because I get to save my brother’s life.”

“We’re a lot closer now than we ever were before, but we’re still competitive,” Nick added with a smile.

On Nick’s door is a message: “I did it. I’m done. I got through it. I’m finished. I am a chemo survivor.”

Nick will tell you how good it feels to spend Christmas in a home, far from a hospital bed.

“Waking up in the morning is so fun, and we come down here and open up all the presents,” he said.

Nick added nothing under the tree can beat what Jack’s given him.

“Mm hm,” he smiled. “The best gift ever.”

Though Nick is done with treatments, he’s still going in for check-ups and will be going through physical therapy in the summer.

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