Thousands back Zac in bid to raise £500k and save his life
AT four years old, Zac Oliver should have his whole life ahead of him.
And if his parents and the people of his home town have anything to do with it, that’s exactly what will happen.
The impish football fan faces a battle for survival after becoming the only person in the country to be diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia, with his best chance of life coming through a pioneering course of treatment not yet available in this country.
In little over a month, Hannah Oliver Willets and Mark Garbett have raised £400,000 towards the £500,000 cost of flying their son to a Philadelphia hospital for the treatment – backed by the ‘wonderful’ people of Telford, Shropshire, and celebrities such as Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler, footballer Jermain Defoe and X Factor supremo Simon Cowell.
Mr Garbett, 37, and Mrs Oliver-Willets, 33, who separated before Zac was born, said yesterday they were humbled by the support they had received – as 3,000 people braved torrential rain for their latest fundraising event, ZacFest.
The live music event and funfair in Telford Town Park was expected to raise at least £10,000.
Mrs Oliver-Willets, an occupational therapist who lives with husband Wayne Willets, 37, a plasterer, just outside Telford, said: ‘It’s incredible how the community have rallied around us.
‘Zac had a brilliant time running around and splashing in the puddles at ZacFest until his legs started to feel tired.
‘He is always happy, a typical boisterous four-year-old. But in between, he has bouts of nausea and feels poorly. We are up and down with him every day.’
Zac is believed to be the only child in the country with the Near-Haploid strain of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a condition which affects only 0.5 per cent of childhood leukaemia sufferers worldwide.
Doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia say the Cart T cell therapy will give Zac a 60-80 per cent chance of survival, rather than a less than 25 per cent chance offered by continued chemotherapy or a bone marrow transplant, which are his only options in the UK.
Mrs Oliver-Willets said: ‘We have nothing to lose because Zac will most probably die if he continues on chemo or has a bone marrow transplant. This (treatment in the US) might save his life.’
Fighting back tears, she added: ‘I know there’s a chance Zac might not make it but I have to try my hardest so I have no regrets. I want to save his life, or at least know that there was nothing more I could have done.’
Mrs Oliver-Willets realised something was seriously wrong with Zac when he started complaining of pains in his knee and wrists over a matter of days in May.
A specialist oncologist made a general leukaemia diagnosis, before specialist testing at Birmingham Children’s Hospital pinpointed the exact strain.
Mr Garbett, a plumber and maintenance worker, said: ‘The way people have come to our aid has been brilliant.’
Anyone who wants to support the fundraising campaign should visit justgiving.com/crowdfunding/zac-oliver *You can also donate on your mobile by texting ZACH75 £1 to 70070