Zakky was diagnosed with neuroblastoma a day before his 3rd birthday. He fell ill quickly and had to start treatment as a matter of urgency. His treatment has included; multiple infusions of different chemotherapy drugs; stem cell rescue; surgery; radiotherapy and immunotherapy. As well as this, he’s had multiple injections; blood tests; general anaesthetics; bone marrow aspirates and scans. He’s been through so much already for such a little boy.

His frontline treatment came to an end mid-December 2016, after which there were no more treatment options available to him in the UK. A daunting prospect for his family in the knowledge of high rates of relapse with such poor prognosis, they identified the DFMO clinical trial in Michigan as an opportunity to continue his cancer therapy and try to keep his cancer away. The clinical trial being incredibly costly to access necessitated the family to launch a fundraising appeal through the charity to raise £134k. With thanks to so many kind-hearted people, they achieved the target and took their first steps on their new journey on 2nd January 2017. Over the next two years, Zakky will have 6 rounds of treatment at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.

The family remain forever grateful for the love shown to their little man: ‘You will never know how much each and every penny donated means to us. It’s the most heart-warming feeling knowing that everyone is behind our boy. Because of your support, we can give our boy the chance he deserves and have hope that we can keep him cancer free’. 

Read more about Zakky’s campaign and follow his story on Facebook.