Ziko fought a brave and hard battle. He was diagnosed with pancreatic acinar cell Carcinoma when he was 10. He got sick when he was 9 but the cancer had not shown up yet. It took doctors 10 months to finally find what is wrong. They were shocked that they had a child with pancreatic cancer. The type of cancer he had there is 25 known cases in the world in children. He was the 2nd child in the United States to ever get it. He fought hard with 12 rounds of chemos, a whipple surgery, most of his pancreas was removed. He had to be on enzyme replacers for the rest of his life. 28 rounds of proton radiation. And chemo pills. He was doing well when he relapsed in July of 2023. He got out on a trial med. unfortunately his tumor went from 3cm to over 13 cm in weeks… and we found out that his stage 2 pancreatic cancer is now deadly and we had no idea it had gotten out of control with in three weeks like this. The doctors were shocked to. We had to bring Ziko in to the hospital cuz Sep 13 he got randomly sick… that is when we found out how dire the situation has come and were told he maybe only had hours left. We had a hard time wrapping our heads around it as the day before he was laughing, playing, riding his bike… stage 2…. Doing well. To a child laying in the hospital bed dying. Doctors encouraging us to make DNR choices. It was so over whelming we didn’t have time to think. We were blessed that his tumor bleeding ended up slowing down. Giving us a beautiful 3 and a half weeks with him. He stayed in the hospital for comfort as it was our 2nd home to us anyway. We had spent so much time there for treatments and everyone was like family. They kept him comfortable. We made the most of our time with the amazing hospital staff of C.S Motts children hospital. Floor 7 east is a Special place. They let Ziko up on the helicopter pad. He got to call in the helicopter and sit in it. They made it so he was comfortable to come home twice, to see his pets and spend a few hours at home each time. He got to say good bye to neighbors and all his family who rushed to come see him. His dream came true to pet a penguin. The Detroit zoo and some very special staff worked together to get Ziko to the zoo before they opened so he could spend time with the penguins. It was amazing. Child life did amazing activity’s with him, making forever keep sakes for us. He didn’t get to go to his Disney make a wash trip…. But the rainbow foundation granted him another wish. He wished for the Lego titanic set. They rushed it to him. And he got to build 85 percent of it before he passed away. He wanted his mom to finish the rest for him, and she did. Ziko was comfortable the whole time. He wanted people to be aware of pancreatic cancer in kids. He cared about everyone around him. He never complained and always had a smile. Ziko was an inspiration to all those who knew him.One thing we can take from Ziko’s memory is his love, strength, his trust in god, and his positivity. Ziko had a light about him. He shined it on everyone he met. Every time you see a penguins remember Ziko and his kindness. Go out of your way to do something kind for someone else. That’s what Ziko was all about. We love and miss him and carry his memory with us everyday. He was truly something special. He was and will always remain #ZikoTheBrave