The girl who proves little Zac’s miracle treatment in US can save lives
FEW can understand the challenges facing British leukaemia patient Zac Oliver better than Emily Whitehead.
She was the first child in the world to have the revolutionary cancer treatment being offered to the brave four-year-old in the United States.
American Emily, 11, has been cancerfree since the age of six when she had the treatment and yesterday her proud mother Kari said: ‘She is the proof that it works. Zac will be in great hands.’
Emily received the pioneering CAR T- cell therapy – which trains the immune system to fight cancer – at the same children’s hospital in Philadelphia that Zac is going to. Mrs Whitehead said: ‘The staff there are incredible. They will make Zac and his family feel very welcome.’ Zac is the only person in the UK with the extremely rare Near-Haploid strain of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. T- cell therapy is his best hope but is not yet available in Britain.
His parents raised £500,000 for his treatment in America thanks to the generosity of Daily Mail readers – including a mystery donor who gave £100,000 – and a fundraising effort by neighbours in Broseley, near Telford, and elsewhere in Shropshire.
Parents Hannah Oliver-Willets, 33, and Mark Garbett, 37, launched the fundraising drive last month after learning that a bone marrow transplant or chemotherapy – the only treatments available to Zac in the UK – had a less than 25 per cent chance of saving him.
Now a bone marrow biopsy has been brought forward by three weeks to clear the way for him to fly to the US. Zac needs another week of chemotherapy and a week’s recuperation at home before he can travel to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Last night the Whiteheads, from Philipsburg in Pennsylvania, said Emily had found the treatment gruelling but urged Zac’s family: ‘Just stay positive.’
Mrs Whitehead told the Daily Mail: ‘Emily did get sick during the treatment. It doesn’t happen to every child – some children do, and you never know. We were in the same position and I would say to Zac’s family you just have to remain very hopeful and be very positive. It can be very frightening as a parent to watch, but you just have to remember that the T-cells are doing their job fighting the cancer and that’s why they get sick.
‘But usually the children recover completely. It is important to remain hopeful and just stay positive.’
In a message thanking donors on Facebook yesterday, Mrs Oliver-Willets wrote: ‘We are absolutely amazed at all of your dedication, commitment and hard work. We honestly can’t express just how happy and excited we are right now.’
The family appealed to supporters to continue fundraising as Zac will need to return to the US every three months for a year, then every six months for two years.