Zac Oliver's mum supports UK lockdown to protect the vulnerable from coronavirus
Stay home and you will save lives – that is the message from the mother of brave young cancer survivor Zac Oliver, who is isolating at home with his family for fear that the coronavirus could threaten his weakened immune system.
Five-year-old Broseley boy Zac rang the end-of-treatment bell for his complex cancer treatment earlier this year after an international fundraising campaign to get him specialist treatment in America.
But now his mum Hannah Oliver-Whillets fears his cancer could go "back to square one" if he is infected with Covid-19 and before it was announced on Monday night said she was "all for" a lockdown on people's movement in the UK as in other European countries to stop people spreading it.
She explained that because the CAR-T treatment Zac received for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia affected his immune system, he should only take steroids in "life-or-death situations" because they may stop the CAR-T cells from working.
"All that work that everyone put in to save his life could be taken away very, very quickly," she said.
"It is quite a frightening situation. If he gets that virus, what could happen?"
Hannah took Zac and his little brother Leo out of school last week because she was "petrified" of the consequences of Zac getting ill.
The family is staying in and has relied on food deliveries from local organisations and supermarkets (see our list of such services across Shropshire here), while Zac and Leo have taken to a strict new hand-washing and antibacterial routine.
They have made trips out in cars to keep the children stimulated but Hannah admitted feeling anxious, fearing what would happen if they broke down.
'I am all for a lockdown'
But her key message was for the people who continue to ignore the government's social distancing advice: "By staying in your home, you are able to save lives better.
"By continuing to go out and queue up outside supermarkets or go other places where you're almost touching people, it's not helping.
"You are continuing to spread the virus and we will continue to have deaths every single day.
"If we can just stop people doing that and prevent that spread it's going to make a huge difference.
"I don't know how much better I can say it – stay at home, don't contact others. Let's put the kibosh on coronavirus.
"I am all for a lockdown if that's how you want to classify it."
She said that the fit and healthy may struggle to understand the risks to those who are especially vulnerable – the elderly and those with underlying conditions – and that she sympathised with those still going out but would ask them to do their part even if it is difficult.
"There are so many vulnerable people out there – I think they understand the risks. They have probably been in life-or-situations before, they have got clarity on the situation.
"I really do feel for the healthy people. I believe it's quite a struggle for them to understand how serious this is.
"If they don't have that connection with vulnerable people they might not understand the severity of it."
Zac will celebrate his sixth birthday in a few days, and his mother said that a silver lining of the crisis would be to teach him and his brother not to take luxuries like presents and three-course meals for granted.
