Seven-year-old Zach has been battling his whole life. In 2014, Zach’s mum Tricy, a former travel agent, wrote us a desperate plea for help.
Zach has a benign brain tumour, hydrocephalus, neurological disorders that affect his balance and speech, and is fed through his stomach. He also has multiple genetic health problems, and, at most, has the mental age of a two-year-old. His condition so complex that it has no name.
He has no spatial awareness and will try to run through everything in his path. His behaviour is getting more challenging and he has been in and out of hospital with numerous other medical issues.
Zach is unable to communicate and is in constant pain. He needs around-the-clock care, leaving his mum and dad often left physically, emotionally and financially exhausted.
Since Tricy first made contact, ABTA LifeLine, with support from the whole travel community, have helped the family wherever possible. This Included helping to build a sensory room for Zach, giving him a vital calming, relaxing space to enjoy – it was a lifesaver for the family.
Earlier this year, we also sent the family on a week away to Norfolk.
To many, a break like this would be relaxing time away, to Zach and his family it was a chance to make once-in-a-lifetime memories, which they had not had the chance to do so in Zach’s life before.
'Zachy had a couple of days of severe pain and struggled with the change but completely came alive when we were at the beach.
'We made some beautiful happy memories and sadly we realised that most of the memories we have with Zach are around illness, hospital and therapies, medicine/feed routines etc. This holiday completely changed that as you can see from the photos.
'Zach is trying so hard to say more words and the holiday really brought that forward. We are so lucky to have such wonderful charities helping Zach and have made some everlasting memories as a result,' Tricy said.
This year, ABTA LifeLine was able to raise more money for a specialist bed and ongoing therapy for Zach. But sadly we do not know what lies ahead for this special family – with mounting debts and constant travel to hospital, there is little light at the end of the tunnel, but we are going to make sure we continue to help whenever and wherever we can.