Zach Schmidt

2005 Miracle Ambassador

Age 12 - St. Louis Children's Hospital

When Zach was only four years old, he was diagnosed with Rhabdo, cancerous tumor of the soft tissue. His primary tumor was in his left jaw, but he also had multiple tumors wrapped around his aorta, in his abdomen, and a lesion on his right calf. The doctors told his mom, Cherrie, that with traditional treatments of chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery Zach would only have a 20% chance of remaining in remission. They agreed that this was not good enough and added Autologus Stem Cell Rescue to his treatment schedule.  Zach received chemo for six months, in addition to surgery to remove the hematoma in his right calf later in 2003.  In March 2003, his scans showed the he was in remission and they prepared to enter the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, where he stayed for one month.  In June, following treatment Zach steadily improved each day and when it was finally time to go home Zach insisted on walking out under his own power. 

Zach was in remission for almost four years when his scans on March 27, 2007 revealed a “shadow” in his right lung.  The doctors identified the cancer as a Stage 2 embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, and again Zach went through chemotherapy and radiation therapy - this time 8 rounds of chemo and 23 treatments of radiation. Zach continued to take everything in stride despite all of the challeneges he was facing with his second bout with cancer. 

Amazingly, doctors found yet another shadow during a routine chest CT in October of 2008, which was later identified as thyroid cancer.  Doctors believed his thyroid cancer was caused from prior radiation treatments.  In early November Zach had surgery to remove his entire thyroid and surrounding lymph nodes on the right side, in addition to  radio iodine treatment to kill any remaining thyroid cells in his body.  Zach's mom said that of Zach's three battles with cancer, this was his easiest!

As a three-time cancer survivor, Zach provides hope and inspiration to anyone facing one of life's scariest medical challenges.  Despite everything, Zach lives is doing great and has been in remission since 2009.  He loves basketball, baseball, cooking and is and active member of his church's youth group.

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