WATCH: Simon Cowell backs Zac with £50,000 donation
Music mogul Simon Cowell has donated £50,000 to help Broseley youngster Zac Oliver undergo treatment in the US.
Cowell, who is a judge on X Factor and helped launch bands such as One Direction, posted a video in which he pledged to donate the whopping sum, while also urging all his fans to donate as well.
The 59-year-old was speaking ahead of Zacfest, which takes place tomorrow at Telford Town Park.
WATCH: Simon Cowell backs Zac
In the video he said: "I want to talk to you about Zac and Zacfest. This boy is four years old and needs money to get him to America to get the help he needs. So I want you please to go on Zac Oliver's JustGiving page and whatever you can donate will make a difference. And because I don't like well-known people telling people to do something and don't do anything themselves, I'm going to donate £50,000. We're going to get there."
Hannah Oliver-Willets, Zac's mother, shared the video on social media, adding: "Thank you to Simon Cowell for doing such an amazing job at supporting our cause. I explained to Zac that Simon has helped to pay for his special medicine. Zac said 'thanks si' lol, little does he know exactly what this actually means and how much closer we really are to getting him to the US."
In a later post Hannah added that there was only £100,000 left to raise to reach Zac's £500,000 target.
The Broseley youngster has an extremely rare form of childhood leukaemia, called Near Haploid, and needs to travel to the US for treatment unavailable on the NHS.
His family need to raise £500,000 to get to Philadelphia for the CAR-T therapy. The cause has captured the hearts of the county and so far the people of Shropshire have helped to raise more than £350,000
With Cowell's donation that figure is now believed to be more than £400,000, leaving just £100,000 to go before Zac can fly out to the US.
How you can help:
Anyone who wants to support the fundraising campaign should visit justgiving.com/crowdfunding/zac-oliver
People can also join Zac's Facebook support page which is called 'Zachariah's's fight against Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia'.
People can also donate using their mobile phone by texting ZACH75 £1 to 70070.
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