On 1st April 2023, Zak’s amazing cousin, Harvey, embarked on a two day challenge to walk from Alder Hay children’s hospital (where Zak spent a lot of time) to Old Trafford (the home of Zak’s beloved Manchester United). This gained national coverage and raised a vast amount of money for Alder Hay and Zak’s Bucket List

I was fortunate enough to have the pleasure to be one of Zak’s football coaches. The coaches of Golborne Sports U11s have decided to recreate the walk from Alder Hey to Old Trafford, but this time we aim to complete this in one day. We will be doing this challenge on the 1st anniversary of Zak’s passing

Zak was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bone cancer called Ewing’s sarcoma when he was just 7 years old.

There was a large mass found in his rib cage that was causing him an unbelievable amount of pain. After a CT and MRI scan at Alderhey children’s hospital, the family were given the devastating news.

After 6 months of chemotherapy and 30 daily blasts of radiotherapy the tumour had drastically shrank.

The doctors had given Zak more time to make memories with his friends and family Zak and his family filled that year away from treatment with adventures and ticking off his bucket list.

Unfortunately almost a year later Zak’s tumour had returned and had spread to his lungs and brain making it metastatic (several areas) at this point they couldn’t even offer us chemotherapy with intent to cure. Zak was now in the hands of the Palliative care team.

Zak sadly lost is battle on the 22/11/2024 at home with both his parents holding him in there arms.

If we can help to give other children more time with there family’s or even beat this awful cancer it would mean the world to Zak’s family.

Please visit Zak’s Goal in the link below

https://specialfunds-bcrt.blackbaud-sites.com/zaks-goal

The Bone Cancer Research Trust is dedicated to saving lives & improving outcomes for people affected by primary bone cancer. Despite being small, they fund more research projects exploring primary bone cancer than any other organisation. Other large UK cancer research charities do not prioritise bone cancer patients, in 2019 just 0.028% of their research spend went to bone cancer – not even close to 1%!

Last year alone, Bone Cancer Research Trust committed an incredible £807,824 to pioneering bone cancer research to save lives!