Jack Ricketts sadly left behind a devastated fiancé and three-year-old daughter as he was placed into a coma and died last week
05:30, 13 Sep 2025Updated 10:18, 13 Sep 2025
Jack and his three-year-old daughter, Eliza
A devoted Birmingham dad has died at just 29, leaving behind “goodbye notes” for his three-year-old girl and devastated fiancé.
Jack Ricketts bravely battled Lymphoblastic lymphoma, a rare form of cancer, after it was discovered during scans when he was 26.
He underwent years of intensive treatment, month-long hospital stays, chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. But he developed a complication from the transplant – known as graft-versus-host-disease – and was placed into a coma in hospital.
READ MORE: Striking bin worker shares smiling photos of ‘love of his life’ as she dies aged 36
Having written notes to loved ones ahead of the coma, he died on Tuesday, September 2. His daughter Eliza, who turns four next month, is too young to fully understand the tragedy, with the Small Heath family explaining to her: “Daddy’s in the sky with the angels.”
His fiancé Chloe, and six siblings, including three brothers and three sisters, are heartbroken following his death. His grieving mum, Amanda Ross, said the pain of losing her son, who was the second eldest of seven, was worse than any loss imaginable.
“My son was the bravest man and I don’t think I’ll ever get over the loss of him,” she said.
“I’ve lost people close to me, but the pain of losing a child is like nothing anybody can ever imagine.
Jack and his daughter, Eliza
“Chloe is absolutely devastated, Jack was her world. He met Chloe and she really was the love of his life. He just worshipped her, absolutely adored her.
“Once they had Eliza, he just lived for her. He just wanted to be the best dad he could and do everything for her.
“When he was diagnosed with cancer, he just wanted to make memories with Eliza. He never complained about the pain he was in or feeling ill, he just wanted to be there to do as much as he could with Eliza.”
A GoFundMe page has been launched by loved ones to help support Eliza and Chloe navigate the difficult months and years ahead.
Donations were already well over £5,000 of its £10,000 target on Wednesday, September 10. “Everything is for Eliza,” Amanda said.
“She doesn’t understand what’s happened. We’ve said to her ‘daddy’s in the sky with the angels’ and, ‘he’s the brightest star in the night’.
“She says ‘daddy’s on an aeroplane’, she was here yesterday and said ‘daddy’s at hospital, daddy’s not well.'”
Jack, who worked in finance and part-time at Tesco, found out he had the disease in December 2022, when Eliza was one.
“He had no symptoms just a little bit of chest pain, he went to the doctors and they thought he had a muscle strain. He went back three weeks later with pain, they said it was the same thing,” Amanda recalled.
“I told him to phone 111 or ask to see a different doctor.” After going to A&E, X-rays and a CT scan led to doctors finding a mass in his chest.
“From there it was a whirlwind of treatment,” his mum explained. Later, medics found a lump in his leg and scans uncovered “three hotspots” where the cancer had returned.
After “lots of invasive chemo” and a stem cell transplant in March this year, he spent another month in hospital. He began feeling better and his family were able to enjoy a final trip to Cornwall, making memories with Eliza.
But when he returned from the trip with a rash and an upset stomach, he was hospitalised again. It’s understood he suffered from graft-versus-host disease – a systemic disorder where immune cells from transplanted tissue attack cells as they recognize the recipient’s body as foreign.
Jack on his final holiday with his family
“We took him back in [to hospital] on the Wednesday as he was poorly, his chest was bad,” his mum said.
“He came down to ICU on the following Monday, then was put into a coma the following Tuesday and then died a week later.”
She continued: “I’m biased as he was my son, but he was the best.
“Even when they told him they were putting him into a coma, he didn’t tell anybody. We didn’t know.
“In that time while he was waiting to be put into a coma, he was writing goodbye notes. He never ever let on about how much pain he was in.
“Most of us had a note, he didn’t get to finish them. He was saying what he wanted for us for the future, he said to me: ‘I’ll live on in Eliza, so make sure she knows all about me.'”
Amanda urged anyone whose concerned about their health to ensure they were checked. She said: “If people think there’s something wrong, get it checked out.