Jordan King: “There was a post-it note on Wilms tumour”

The inspiring story of King’s childhood battle with cancer and his journey to a career in motorsport

A simple, sticky yellow post-it note plays a defining role in the story of Jordan King. The now 25-year-old racing driver was just 11 months old when he was diagnosed with cancer. His mother had been sat on the edge of their family bath, watching her two young children play, as she regularly would do in the evenings. Fast-forward a few hours, and she was staring at a medical journal, pages spread open onto children’s tumours, with that life-changing post-it note, firmly fixed onto the heading ‘Wilms tumour.’ The next 48 hours would be a whirlwind.

For Jordan, these aren’t memories, just stories, told to him by his mother years later. Not the usual kind you hear at bedtime though. There are no talking animals, no glass slippers and no princesses, but there is a King and a happy ever after.

“It was in my left kidney and one of these times where one event led to another,” King began to recall in detail. “My mum said that I stood up for the first time in the bath and there was a lump on the side of my stomach. Her heart probably fell out of her body at that point. My dad was still at work and she called up the local GP. By the time he got home, the GP had come over.

“They said that they were sitting in the living room and Dr Campbell - who was my GP - was there with his book and he said that he had never seen it before, but there was a post-it note on Wilms tumour.”

Perched on the cream sofa of the Formula 2 Hospitality suite, legs crossed, left arm resting on the back of the chair, King has a pair of sunglasses dangling from his MP Motorsport team jersey. He is warm and welcoming, smiling and joking throughout a 40-minute interview, and he willingly opens up in detail on the harrowing events.

“We got put through the system and we went to Birmingham Children's Hospital, where we met a guy called Bruce Morland, who would become my consultant. He was a guest of mine at Silverstone a couple of years ago.

“He told us that luckily - if you want to call it that - there are two places in the world that specialise in this, one in America and one in Birmingham: that hospital. I think that it was within about 48 hours of my mum seeing the tumour, I was operated on and given chemotherapy, post-operation.”

From here, he remained in hospital under observation. Eventually, his parents were able to take their son back to their family home in Leamington Spa. They would regularly return to the hospital though, initially, every few days, this grew to every week, every month, and finally, every six months.

Even now, he cannot visit the doctors without them checking for signs that the cancer may be relapsing. “They will have a quick check and a bit of a feel around,” he explains.

Some 14 years later, Professor Morland was having dinner with the King family and he revealed the extent of their concern for Jordan, which in turn, answered questions as to why his visits to the hospital remained so regular in his childhood.

“He said to my mum, 'you won't know this, but the type of cancer Jordan had, there was a 90% chance of it coming back within the first five years, hence why we had him return so often over those five years.' My mum was really angry with Bruce and told him off for not telling her.

“He just said 'well, if I had told you that, then you would have treated him differently, you'd have wrapped him in cotton wool.' Whereas, because they had said it was all fine, it was kind of the opposite. They were still monitoring it, which was the important thing, but they didn't want my parents to stress about it, they wanted me to go outside and fall out of trees and do all of that stuff.”

When speaking to King, it is clear he feels indebted to the hospital, one which became a second home for him during his formative years. His bond with Professor Morland has remained strong to this day, as has his connection to the Children’s ward. The 25-year-old visits regularly, raising money, giving speeches and appearing at charity balls and fundraisers where high-rising donors are present.

A current F2 racing driver, he has tested Formula 1 machinery, won on home soil in GP2 at Silverstone, and competed in one of the world’s most famous motorsport events: 24 hours of Le Mans. King’s profile allows him to help more than the average person.

“I suppose the thing with Birmingham children's hospital is, that it is a child's hospital, and obviously I am going to sell it, because it saved my life. It is not just about the treatment though. With a children's hospital, you have got one-year-olds and three-year-olds, who don't really know what is going on. For the parents as well, it is not a nice experience.

“So, while there is the headline stuff of buying the expensive equipment that you always see on TV – and that is very important – as well as that, and I think for me, what makes Birmingham Children's Hospital special, is the surroundings and the environment. One of the recent things that they have done is create an outdoor garden play area. The kids can go outside and play and it just allows families to take themselves away from the hospital.

“I went and visited a couple of kids a few years ago: one of them was a five-year-old, who had been in hospital for six months and hadn't left the hospital. So, those sorts of things are quite important, especially when you are developing.”

The picture he paints is in stark contrast to when he was treated there. King talks of bright colours, comfortable sofas, a Sony PlayStation and children’s toys. 20-years ago, children’s wards were much simpler places: decorated uninspiringly, comprising of old, worn-out wooden shelving units, that held a small cluster of donated books, and maybe, the odd inexpensive toy.

Thanks to greater resources, and fundraiser’s like King, the hospital has been able to transform itself. During the Formula 2 summer break, King embarked on a gruelling 500-mile bike ride around the Northern coast of Scotland, in an attempt to raise money for the hospital where he was treated.

His mother was born in Scotland, to British parents, but there is no real connection to the country, he had simply spotted the ride advertised on a tourist board during a stay there. “It looked amazing and it was my sort of thing,” he smiled.

Bed and breakfasts were swiftly arranged across the route, in order to lock-in his commitment, and a Just Giving page was set up, so that family, friends and racing enthusiasts could donate to the cause. This stretched to his social media following, a room of hospitality guests during a speech he gave at Silverstone, and listeners to a radio interview with him.

As it stands, the money raised has reached nearly £8,500. An incredible total which will go some way to improving the lives of many young children, who are struck by illness and disease at tender ages, just like King was.

“You start day one fresh, with so much optimism,” he recalls. “You're like, ‘ohh this is fine.’ I train quite a lot and I do quite a lot of sports, so I know roughly where my body is, where my threshold is and that sort of thing. I set off just below threshold, but still pushing quite hard, and I got six hours in and I was hurting - really hurting on day one.

“Day two, it hurt. Day three, it hurt even more. I got to the end of day two and just kind of said to myself 'wow’, I’m impressed that I actually got here. The best I can describe it, is you start off fresh and you drop down and then it kind of levels off midway through and actually, you start to get kind of stronger again, as your body repairs everything.

“It was really tough, but thoroughly enjoyable, I’d do it again tomorrow. There was some amazing scenery and it was a great challenge.”

It is clear from his completion of that challenge, and his success within motorsport, that his childhood battle with cancer has by no means hindered his ability to contest. There are repercussions, of course – a scar remains from the surgery he underwent that has grown with him. None of these is so serious that hard work and dedication cannot overcome them.

“I notice it sometimes in sport,” he explains. “Obviously, I have had a cut right through my abdominal muscles, so there is sometimes a few imbalances which I get, which I have to work on with my S&C strength and conditioning coach to compensate for. However, because it has been my whole life, bar a year, your body is quite adapt and versatile, it moulds around it.”

Back in his schooling days, when he attended Repton in Derbyshire, King was a naturally gifted, all-round athlete. Sport was in the genetics of his family – his father, Justin King CBE, was a “frustrated sportsman who found business,” laughs Jordan. For many of his younger years, even after he began to kart, King teetered around the idea of playing football and rugby. “Sport has always been my outlet in life,” he asserts without hesitation, “I still hadn't decided what, but I was going to be a professional at something - I was just doing everything.”

In fact, it was his sporting abilities, which had earned him a C. B. Fry scholarship at Repton – famous for schooling the likes of Adam Peaty. Later, an injury to his collarbone, suffered while playing football, played a large part in his decision to focus on motorsport. The damage prevented him from playing any sport and he found his yearning to race as the most trying aspect of his inability to compete.

“I remember talking to the rugby coach and I was saying that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep going with it. I didn’t want to get injured, because I was doing the racing.

“I remember that he gave me an earful, saying that I was really good and didn't need to worry about that, ‘don't do the racing, you won't get injured, it will be fine.’ Then a week later, I broke my collarbone playing football and he just said 'well, it wasn't in rugby!'“

Both his parents and the school were hugely supportive of his decision, despite the fact that Repton were unable to directly support his racing ambitions. He continued to play other sports for fun, but not competitively, or to the same standard – nothing that could potentially injure him again and harm his pathway to motorsport.

It’s a decision that has been vindicated. For 2019, he has returned to Formula 2, alongside commitments in IndyCar and WEC [World Endurance Championships). King currently sits eighth in the standings, on 79 points, but his role stretches beyond the track. The Brit has been a major player behind the scenes for the Dutch team this year, helping in their progression and development of the car.

“I love to drive a car, I love to race, and I hate being bored and not doing anything, so the best thing to do is get my ass in a seat and drive. I love doing things, I love being active.

“Now, all of my other commitments have come to a close, so I am fully focused on F2 now, which is good, because it means I can give these guys a bit more of my time and a bit more of my energy, and really push things forward, help the team. It is only year two of the car, so everyone is still trying to learn it and move the car forward. I am just trying to push MP to keep everything moving and keep in contact with some other front-running teams.”

King is unsure of what the future holds for him and says that he is currently “pushing all of the angles.” His future may remain up in the air, but he continues to support his past.