‘Resilient kid’: London, Ont. boy who lost father to cancer now fighting brain tumour

For Zachery Laliberty, playing music on the keyboard gives a brief reprieve from his physical and emotional pain.

“It just makes me feel calm,” said Zachery, 11, who is going through a child cancer journey.

Over the past four years, Zachery and his mom Jennifer have been through hell.

“In 2022, we lost my husband - Zachery’s dad - to esophageal cancer,” said Jennifer. “He battled fiercely for 16 months. Zachery lost his fun, happy dad, and I lost a love of my life. Then a year later, we’re starting to find our way alone and Zachery gets diagnosed with this brain tumour. Surely the world cannot be that cruel, and as it turns out, for us it could be.”

In grade three, Zachery came home from school with a headache and then started vomiting.

His mom thought it was migraines.

A few months later, he went for an appointment, and the doctor was looking at the back of his eyes and noticed there was pressure caused by swelling of the brain.

“She asked Zachery to leave the room and said, ‘I’m certain Zachary has a brain tumour’ and I couldn’t believe it.”

He’s been on oral chemotherapy twice a day for a couple of years, but it leads to cognitive fatigue.

He’s developed another fluid filled tumour which is an offshoot from the mass.

“He’s facing another surgery,” said Jennifer. “He has to have a catheter put in, which is attached to a dome which will go under his scalp and that will be poked as needed to drain the fluid as it fills up. They expect he will grow up to get married, but life will not be easy for Zachery.”

To help temporarily make life easier for the Laliberty family, local musicians the Rizdales’ held their 18th annual ‘Rizdales’ Roots Roundup’ on Nov. 15. The cancer fundraiser brought in $10,000 to Zachery.

“We take some of our favorite musicians and we gather them all together for the afternoon of music and dancing and just, you know, laughter,” said Tara Dunphy of the Rizdales.

Dunphy’s dad passed away in 2007 and each year since they’ve held a fundraiser which has brought in over $50,000 since inception.

“The cost of cancer is so much more than the physical cost,” added Dunphy. “Just the parking, the coffees, you know, a little treat stopping at toys around after a difficult medical appointment.”

Zachery – who turns 11 years old on Tuesday - received the best birthday present he could ask for just a couple of days earlier. His mother surprised him with entry into Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s baseball camp.

“I got to do 18 stations, and I got fist pumping and to high five him and side hug him,” said Zachery.

There was even a brief time, he got to play catch twice.

“He rolled it [a baseball] to me and then I threw it to him,” said Zachery. “He caught it and then nodded his head to me.”

His mother was stunned to see the interaction.

“I made a dream come true for him,” said Jennifer. “But for me too, because it was ‘Vladdy’. I didn’t know that he would get to throw the ball with Vlad, so when I saw that I, my eyes welled up with joy.”

For that moment, it was a chance to forget about all the pain and suffering these two have been through. They know there is more to come.

“But he’s one of the most resilient kids I’ve ever met,” said Jennifer.