Zach Sobiech, a seventeen-year-old boy suffering from terminal cancer , has recorded a song to say goodbye to his friends in family. The teen was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, and doctors have given him only months to live.
According to his “Caring Bridge” blog, Sobiech has been living with the terminal illness since November 2009 when he was 14 years old. Osteosarcoma is an aggressive form of bone cancer that presents in a period of rapid growth during the teen years. Most patients are diagnosed around the age of fifteen. The prognosis is grim but not necessarily terminal.
Zach has endured many surgeries, biopsies, and months of chemotherepy following his diagnosis. He and his family have been through hell in the last three years, even learning that he had been cancer free for as long as 9 months at one point, only to learn that it had returned once again.
According to the webpage for the “ Zach Sobiech Osteosarcoma Fund ,” by May of this year, the cancer had spread to his pelvis and lungs. At that point, there was no further known treatment available. The doctors gave the young man only months to live. Zach’s family created the fund to help further research toward treatment, if not a cure for the devastation disease.
Sobiech has not given up. Rather than letting the diagnosis defeat him, he has written and recorded a song as a farewell to his friends and family. Zach loves playing his guitar and is rarely seen without it. The song is haunting and will break your heart but is also a true inspiration and something that his loved ones will always have to hold on to. His talent and bright smile will endure.
