Cards for Jacob: teen seeks cards for birthday

GILBERT, Ariz. (KSAZ) - A valley boy suffering from a terminal illness is about to turn 14 and only wants one thing for his birthday: cards.

His family is hoping thousands will come in.

Jacob had the same wish last year, and it went viral.

"We're trying to get  Jacob a ton of birthday cards. Last year we did the same story, and we ended up with 8,000 to 9,000 birthday cards," said Tom Priestley.

And that was just cards from Arizona.

"Everyday he'd go through 200-300 cards, and he'd pick out his favorite one. It's something we were doing for months, I mean it didn't stop until August or September. We were doing it for months," said Tom.

"Took a long time, but I read it all, and it was great," said Jacob.

Jacob finally read his last birthday cards from 2015 just three months ago. Now his parents want to top last year, because of how impactful each card was.

"It helped him through hospital visits, we would take boxes of them with us to the hospital, and he would go through them all and read them," said Britney Priestley.

His parents say the messages gave him not just a brighter birthday, but a better year.

"He has joy but not the same joy that we do, we want to be able to give him that joy for his birthday to let him know that he's special, and we love him, and there are a lot of supporters behind him," said Britney.

And Jacob couldn't be more appreciative.

"It's just that they took the time of their day to write to a random stranger a letter that makes me so happy," said Jacob.

Jacob is looking for funny cards and ones with puns on them.

Mail any cards here:
Jacob Priestley
P. O. Box 855
Queen Creek, AZ 85142