Covenanters across the country prayed for Zack in July when they read how he nearly missed CHIC 2006 because of cancer that was discovered just three weeks before the event. The osteosarcoma had re-appeared in his lung after nine months of chemotherapy to treat the disease that first appeared in his leg.
Zach had motivated himself through the arduous treatments by looking forward to attending CHIC. When organizers learned the teenager would not be able to make the long bus trip from Iron River, Michigan, they secretly flew him to Knoxville, Tennessee. He surprised his fellow youth group members when he joined them on the Main Stage during the second night of the event.
He underwent surgery later that week at the Mayo Clinic to successfully remove the tumor. A CAT scan in August found nothing, but Zack complained late last month of feeling something in his lung, says his mother, Sherry. A second scan found the cancerous mass. “The doctors say you generally don’t feel anything, but he knew something was wrong.”
Doctors hope the chemotherapy will shrink the tumor enough so that they can operate in mid-November. If the tumor does not shrink enough by then, they will try to do surgery in January.
“It was just overwhelming,” Sherry says of learning the latest news.
Stuck turned 17 in September.
To read a previously published story about Zack – available in both English and Spanish, see No Ordinary Day or ‘Un Dia Sin Igual.’
