As some of you may know we recently lost our son, Zac, in a sudden and unexpected way. For those of you who don't know us we need you to know how much of an impression he had on our lives. In the 2 and a half years he was with us he filled our hearts with love and made us laugh at every opportunity...he was certainly wise beyond his years! We were always proud of Zac and his spirited ways.

OUR STORY

We met in 2009 in our hometown of Wallingford, after many happy years of holidays and house buying, we married in 2015. We always talked about having children and we would talk frequently about life with children and hoped it would be part of our future. After trying for some time to fall pregnant we finally got that faint pink line, we were ecstatic, it was like all our dreams had come true.

Zac was born on May 9th, 2018. And so, our journey into parenthood began. Zac was so full of life; he was cheeky, loving, funny and had an extremely head strong character. He had a way with people, even at such an early age, people were genuinely drawn to his infectious personality.

In 2020 Zacs sister, Reeva, was born and from the moment he first saw her you could see the love in his eyes, he was the most endearing big brother towards her...Our lives really did feel content and complete.

Everything changed at the start of January, when what we thought was a simple stomach bug, shattered our lives forever.

After a few days of Zac being unwell, and a trip to out of hours A&E, we decided to take Zac to our local GP for a second opinion. We were advised to take him to a main hospital as a precaution. After some initial checks it was thought that Zac may have appendicitis and an operation was needed as soon as possible.

Upon operating, and contrary to their initial thoughts, the surgeon discovered that Zac had a rare malrotation of the bowel, which unbeknown to us he would have had from birth, secondly, he also had an internal hernia, this meant his bowel was looping through the hole and constricting. After the first operation we thought the twisted bowel had been caught just in time and almost felt relieved but within 12 hours, and during recovery, Zac suddenly lost consciousness ...the crash team were called immediately. Within minutes, Zac had many Drs and nurses around him, and he had to be rushed back to theatre.

Despite everyone’s best efforts Zac’s bowel had twisted again and constricted itself. They took us in to a side room and told us the bowel was in a grave state, and to prepare ourselves as he may not make it through the night. Zac was placed in intensive care and the next few hours were critical. The next day, after a long night by his side and with Zac under the excellent care of the ICU staff, we were told that there was nothing more the surgeons could do for him...his bowel had become incompatible with life.

At this stage we had to prepare ourselves for the unthinkable, we took the decision to keep him where he was. We both climbed into bed with him, dressed him in his favourite pyjamas and we read him bedtime stories. His life support was removed... and on the 10th of January at 9:17pm, Zac passed away, peacefully in our arms.

ZACS FUND

In the days after Zac passing, we were looked after by so many people, food parcels have arrived daily, offers of help and support for all manner of things and more importantly Helen & Douglas house gave us a place of comfort whilst we struggled with the initial shock of what had happened.... we know full well not everyone has this level of support.

We have decided to set up this crowdfunding page to give something back in Zacs name. We always told him that he was going places in life, especially with his tenacious, driven mind and although this was not what we had envisaged, we need this to drive us forward and do amazing things for other people. It will urge us to complete challenges, set goals and raise money in a whole array of ways.

We hope to setup a charity so others can raise money in his name so funds can be distributed to various causes, specifically, those that can support families whilst coming to terms with their grief. We want this to be an ongoing concern, so we are asking people to share this worldwide in the hope that we can create a legacy in his name.

Thank you for reading this and thank you in advance for anything you can offer.

Simon, Rachel & Reeva