A single photograph taken inside a Johns Hopkins Hospital room in January 2012 turned into a statewide cancer nonprofit that now helps thousands of patients across Maryland each year. The image showed 18-year-old Zachary Lederer flexing his biceps just an hour after brain surgery, a pose that spread across the internet and eventually spawned the Howard County-based Zaching Against Cancer Foundation.
The photo itself was taken by his father, John Lederer, in the hospital room, according to Baltimore Magazine.
Lederer started at the University of Maryland as a freshman in 2012 and took on a role as student manager for the men's basketball team under then-head coach Mark Turgeon, per WBAL News Radio. That campus connection helped the bicep pose spread across national sports broadcasts, according to The Diamondback, which reported that Lederer wore a cape during his treatments and that University of Maryland students held a campus-wide candlelight vigil after his death.
A Teenager's Pose Becomes a Statewide Mission
Local schools helped host early Zaching fundraising 5Ks in the years that followed, the outlet added. Lederer died of brain cancer at age 20 on March 11, 2014, nearly two years after founding the movement, as reported by the Archdiocese of Baltimore's Catholic Review, which reported that he had been diagnosed with cancer at age 11 and noted he had been a parishioner at Church of the Resurrection in Ellicott City. He lost his fight against cancer nearly 13 years before this month, per WBAL News Radio.
What started as a viral image has grown into a structured nonprofit still run with help from Lederer's family. His sister, Julia Lederer, and mother, Christine Lederer, remain connected to the foundation, the station reported. WBAL News Radio described the foundation as helping thousands.
From Rides to Scholarships, a Growing List of Programs
The organization's largest initiative, called Little Things for Cancer, helps patients with practical needs including rides, groceries, medical equipment and prescription co-pays, per the station's report. The foundation partners with Lyft to provide rides to and from cancer treatments. It also runs the Zack Pack program, delivering what the group calls a hug in a box, filled with puzzle games, to hospitalized patients.
Beyond logistical support, the foundation holds a day of beauty on a pediatric cancer floor at Johns Hopkins, offering hair washing, drying, blowouts and haircuts for patients and caregivers. Volunteers decorate patients' rooms with banners and streamers as part of the effort. Separately, the foundation awards six annual $2,500 Spirit Award Scholarships to Maryland high school seniors who have faced personal hardships tied to cancer, according to Long Reach High School, with candidates including student cancer survivors, caregivers or family members of someone affected by the disease.
State Funding and a Growing Annual Race
Zaching Against Cancer's reach now extends into Annapolis. Early this year, the Maryland General Assembly designated direct general fund appropriations for the foundation within state budget legislation, Senate Bill 282, according to the Maryland General Assembly.
The foundation will host its running festival at Turf Valley Resort in Ellicott City on November 21, according to WBAL News Radio, with roughly 1,000 runners expected. The event includes a 10K, a 5K, a one-mile walk and a party afterward, and proceeds will go toward helping cancer patients. Participants typically run along the resort's golf course paths, according to a sponsorship packet from the Zaching Against Cancer Running Festival, which noted the event has partnered with local businesses including Nightmare Graphics, which has produced official Zaching apparel since 2012.
More than a decade after Lederer's pose first spread online, the foundation built in his name continues translating that moment of defiance into direct aid for families still facing the same disease.
