- J
- H
- T
Meet Zach. He’s my little brother who lives in New York City with his dad. He likes to draw and write comic books. He’s soft-spoken, sweet, and astoundingly intelligent. He attends NYU on a full scholarship and is one semester away from graduating with a degree in computer science and aims to work in artificial intelligence or computer animation.
Zach was scheduled to have his last round of interviews with Google for a full-time job starting in July or September. But on Dec. 29, a week before his interview, we discovered the cause of a persistent cough he’d been grappling with for three weeks was a malignant tumor located inside his chest between his esophagus and heart.
He’s since endured a litany of medical tests and procedures, which confirmed the cancer is lymphoma with a mix of leukemia.
It goes without saying that this was completely unexpected — as is likely the case with any tragic news that radically changes your life. This whole experience has really shocked us all because cancer is like an invisible monster you can’t see until it’s standing right in front of you with a knife. But Zach continues to stand strong, despite the knife at his throat.
We don’t yet know what will happen next, but he wants to live, and he will fight tooth and nail to beat this.
And I know he can because he’s so incredibly strong. In a hospital bed surrounded by family that was silently tearing or sobbing, the only sign of fear and distress from Zach was his tight fist curled up in the blanket after having just heard the news from the doctor. That moment, the sight of his fist and stoic face, showed me just how tough my little brother really is. And I believe he can get through this. He has to; he’s only 21.
I know cancer is like a lottery no one wants to win, and it can happen to anyone. In my role as a reporter for a newspaper in Orange County, Florida, I’ve had the honor to meet cancer survivors who’ve shared their stories with me. I only hope that after all of this is said and done, my little brother will also be one of those survivors.
But when someone is fighting for their life against cancer, it takes a team of caring people to help them survive. Now, I’m asking you to please join our team to save Zach. I know he will do great things if given the opportunity to survive this — to live out the rest of his life cancer-free.
He will need a lot of chemo treatments — three years of it, in fact. He has health insurance of course, but we all know too well that only goes so far.
I’m aware social media is littered with similar stories of families in need of money to pay for someone’s illness. I know this may just be another sad story, another case of cancer out of millions. But I will ask anyway: if you are financially able, please consider donating to help pay for the upcoming medical costs I expect my little brother will soon be charged once the medical bills start pouring in. We’re going to take this one step at a time, but anything you can spare to reach our goal of $5,000 will help significantly.
Zach was scheduled to have his last round of interviews with Google for a full-time job starting in July or September. But on Dec. 29, a week before his interview, we discovered the cause of a persistent cough he’d been grappling with for three weeks was a malignant tumor located inside his chest between his esophagus and heart.
He’s since endured a litany of medical tests and procedures, which confirmed the cancer is lymphoma with a mix of leukemia.
It goes without saying that this was completely unexpected — as is likely the case with any tragic news that radically changes your life. This whole experience has really shocked us all because cancer is like an invisible monster you can’t see until it’s standing right in front of you with a knife. But Zach continues to stand strong, despite the knife at his throat.
We don’t yet know what will happen next, but he wants to live, and he will fight tooth and nail to beat this.
And I know he can because he’s so incredibly strong. In a hospital bed surrounded by family that was silently tearing or sobbing, the only sign of fear and distress from Zach was his tight fist curled up in the blanket after having just heard the news from the doctor. That moment, the sight of his fist and stoic face, showed me just how tough my little brother really is. And I believe he can get through this. He has to; he’s only 21.
I know cancer is like a lottery no one wants to win, and it can happen to anyone. In my role as a reporter for a newspaper in Orange County, Florida, I’ve had the honor to meet cancer survivors who’ve shared their stories with me. I only hope that after all of this is said and done, my little brother will also be one of those survivors.
But when someone is fighting for their life against cancer, it takes a team of caring people to help them survive. Now, I’m asking you to please join our team to save Zach. I know he will do great things if given the opportunity to survive this — to live out the rest of his life cancer-free.
He will need a lot of chemo treatments — three years of it, in fact. He has health insurance of course, but we all know too well that only goes so far.
I’m aware social media is littered with similar stories of families in need of money to pay for someone’s illness. I know this may just be another sad story, another case of cancer out of millions. But I will ask anyway: if you are financially able, please consider donating to help pay for the upcoming medical costs I expect my little brother will soon be charged once the medical bills start pouring in. We’re going to take this one step at a time, but anything you can spare to reach our goal of $5,000 will help significantly.