Boy, four, suffering from rare cancer pens heartbreaking letter to Father Christmas and asks for curly hair

This is the first year Zac Oliver has been old enough to write a letter to Father Christmas. 

When his mother Hannah sat down to help him with it she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. 

'Dear Santa, I hope you are well,' the four-year-old dictated as they held the pen together.

'Mummy says to tell you I've been a very good boy so please can you bring me: 1. Dinosaurs. 2. PAW Patrol. 3. Hair — please can you make it curly? Love Zac xxx'.

Zac, who is undergoing a particularly harsh cycle of chemotherapy to contain his rare form of leukaemia, began to lose his hair the day after he decorated the Christmas tree with his three-year-old brother Leo.

He doesn't complain. He never really has since he was diagnosed in May. 

Instead, he loves watching the animated tv show about superhero puppies — PAW Patrol — and making his own Christmas cards.

He shows me the cards he made with a red handprint on the front to thank those who have helped raise funds for the pioneering treatment he is having in America.

The CAR-T therapy is not available to him in this country, but increases his chances of survival from 25 per cent to more than 60 per cent. 

'I'd be really, really poorly if they hadn't paid for my special medicine,' he explains with the sort of earnest expression that can't fail to touch your heart. 

Zac is the winsome little boy who captivated the nation when his story became public earlier this year.

Suffering from the rare near-haploid strain of lymphoblastic leukaemia, his family wanted to send him to the U.S. for revolutionary immunotherapy to give him a fighting chance of life.

When they launched a herculean fundraising campaign, donations poured in — including a £100,000 gift from an anonymous Daily Mail reader — enabling them to reach the £500,000 needed.

Full article: dailymail.co.uk

Follow NEWS.am Medicine on Facebook and Twitter