Help Support Zak's Fight Against Melanoma

Zak passed away on 9/5/2024. He fought so incredibly hard until the very end and will be missed beyond measure. Thank you all for the continued love and support for Zak, Brooke and their family and friends.

Update from Brooke:

The trial Zak did at Duke was unsuccessful and led to a lot of brain inflammation around the brain tumor. Over the past few months he has endured so much. He was in the hospital at Duke for 42 days and ended up losing most of his mobility in his whole left side. This week his health took a rapid decline and we learned that the tumor is progressing. Nothing else can be done.

Thankfully he was able to return home where he’s currently doing in-home hospice.

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Hi! Thanks so much for taking some time to read about Zak’s journey and how you can help! Zak and my husband, John, have been as close as brothers since elementary school. I was lucky enough to meet Zak and his wife Brooke through John. I could tell immediately what funny, generous, wildly fun people they were and I was excited to gain two new friends.

Zak has had melanoma twice before. The first instance was when he was 16 and the other at 27. In both cases the skin cancer was surface level (Stage I). The cancer was removed and the margins were clear of any cancer cells. In April 2022, Zak had an excruciating headache that would not go away. After numerous trips to urgent care and the ER, they finally got some help from Zak’s primary care doctor who ordered a CT scan. The scan revealed that Zak had experienced a significant brain hemorrhage. After a few weeks of appointments, a PET scan revealed that Zak had cancer on his hip, his spine, two tumors in his liver and cancer in his brain. After a biopsy was done, Zak was diagnosed with Stage IV metastasized melanoma. It was the melanoma tumor in his brain that led to the hemorrhage. There was no melanoma found on his skin.

They ended up heading down to Duke’s melanoma clinic and Zak began his immunotherapy treatment for the Stage IV metastasized melanoma. Zak had surgery to remove the spot in his back and had the area fused for strength. After many different types of treatments over a couple years, some promising regression and some unfortunate set backs, Zak qualified for a TIL Therapy trial. The trial started at the end of April 2024 when he got the TIL cells. After about a week, he had a setback. He had inflammation in his primary brain tumor and the tumor in his hip. He was having quite a bit of pain. They put him on steroids and that did help with the inflammation. There were several attempts at tapering off the steroids, but they mostly ended in Zak becoming very ill and having to be back in the hospital. The swelling caused the left side of his body to have considerable weakness. He started PT to try and regain movement on his left side. Which is where they are now. Zak is going back on cancer medication and they are hoping after more PT this week and next that he will be able to come home.

Brooke and Zak have been back and forth to Duke for over 2 years now and have been there full time since the end of April. While Brooke’s job does allow for remote work, it has been extremely hard for her to get a lot done while trying to advocate full time at the hospital for Zak. They initially stayed at hotels when Zak was in and out of the hospital. While Zak was hospitalized, Brooke has been in hotels and AirBnB’s. Thankfully they were able to bring their pups, Groot and Welly, with them. I can attest that they have been the best boys!

Brooke and Zak are so generous and almost never ask for help. However, if you are able, any donation amount would help them out tremendously. This money will allow them to pay a lot towards bills and expenses incurred during this time and help them prepare for future expenses and some cost of living.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and letting me give a snippet of what these strong, loving, brave and tenacious people have been through. Any donation is so appreciated.

Oh and, FCK CANCER!