Zack is an easygoing social 8 year old who loves any type of sport especially baseball, lacrosse and wrestling. He likes superheroes and loves to see the good guy get the bad guy. He has handled his illness with such grace and takes it all in stride. He hasn't let any of this stop him from doing what he loves to do even if it has slowed him down a bit. Zack was diagnosed in August 2010 with hydrocephalus caused by a tumor in his brain stem. He has since had two brain surgeries (Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomys) to allow the fluid to drain away from his brain without the need for a shunt. He had a craniotomy in October 2010 for a biopsy and an attempt to take out some of the tumor. His tumor was found to be a grade 2 diffuse astrocytoma of the tectal plate and the tumor was not able to be removed because of this. Zack began chemotherapy in December 2010 because of the tumor's size and unexpected growth and the treatment lasted 60 weeks. Zack travels to Boston and Rochester for regular check ups to monitor any tumor growth.