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THE FAST AND THE SERIOUS

Zach Oliva Races to Battle Pediatric Cancer

It’s a painful Christmas memory for Zach Oliva.

“I was five years old, and we were coming home from my uncle’s house,” said Oliva. “I was just getting these coughing fits, so bad I would throw up and get really dehydrated.”

Zach’s mom had been searching for answers to her little boy’s ongoing breathing problems. Doctors, unsure of what the issue was, had been treating him for asthma. But Zach says his mom had a gut feeling something else was wrong.

“We went to the Moore Medical Center that night, and they ended up giving me an x-ray,” said Oliva. “The doctors came out and told my parents that I need to go up to the children’s hospital in OKC.”

At the Jimmy Everest Center for Children’s Cancer, doctor’s diagnosed Oliva’s problem as a devastating one: neuroblastoma. The cancerous tumor was growing in and on his spinal cord, pushing into his lungs. Doctors scheduled surgery to remove the tumor. That’s when something remarkable happened.

“It was the first surgery, and it was only supposed to take a couple of hours,” said Oliva. “It ended up taking eight hours, and what the doctors told my parents was pretty much miraculous.”

It turns out that somehow, cancer had killed itself.

“They thought I would have the surgery, then probably chemo and radiation,” said Oliva. “But since the cancer somehow killed itself, I didn’t have to do any of that. So, they cut out all of the tumor they could, and I’ve been cancer-free since.

Oliva, who graduated from Moore High School in 2019, has turned that experience into a passion for two things: racing and helping children who are battling pediatric cancer.

“My dad has been racing cars for something like 30 years now,” said Oliva. “I’ve been going since I was a little boy, so it’s always been in my blood.”

Back in September, Oliva competed in the Race 4 Time at the Southern Oklahoma Speedway in October. He was one of close to 100 drivers racing to help raise awareness and money to support the Jimmy Everest