Pictured at bottom left is Price Gregory Landman Terry James with Zachary Taylor, seated at middle, along with Zachary’s family and New Martinsville Police Chief Tim Cecil. Employees of Price Gregory recently took up a sizable collection to be donated to the Zachary Taylor Trust Fund. Notably, the Christmas tree also pictured is full of ornaments that were given to Zachary from readers and friends showing their support and admiration for Zachary’s faith and compassionate spirit.

Terry James, an employee of Price Gregory International, met with Zachary Taylor and his family on behalf of the employees of Price Gregory to extend a generous donation of $1,924 which was collected during the employees’ Thanksgiving dinner. The collection was spearheaded by Barbara Collier and Lori Holt who were among many to be touched by Zachary Taylor’s story.

The Taylors were featured in the Nov. 16 edition of the Wetzel Chronicle, wherein readers learned of Zachary’s determined faith in the light of repeated struggles and his hope to ease the financial burden of funeral costs to his family. Zachary’s battle with cancer began at only five months of age. He was declared cancer free until the age of 14 when it was discovered he had an osteosarcoma, bone tumor, in his right arm and shoulder. Three months later he was found to have another osteosarcoma on his ribs and both lungs. He had surgery to remove the tumors in April 2010, but it was not followed by chemotherapy treatment because he had already had all of the chemotherapy available during his previous bout with the disease.

Later that summer however, it was learned Zachary had acute myeloid leukemia. Zachary couldn’t wait for a bone marrow donor and since his dad was a 50 percent match, the family decided to use his lifeblood. In October 2010 the transplant took place and surprisingly, his blood took the marrow as if it was a 100 percent match.

Since April he had been enjoying fairly good health but during a November check-up a scan revealed he had a tumor on his left lung and the leukemia was back. The tumor is now the size of a softball and is pressing against his heart.

Doctors at St. Jude’s Children’s Research, Columbus, and Pittsburgh hospitals didn’t want to do surgery on the tumor as they were afraid he would die on the table and it would only, at best, give him two more months to live. That is when Zachary decided he simply wanted to live during his final time on this earth.

Quite miraculously, Zachary has outlived doctors’ prognoses of one to two weeks and he and his family are looking forward to celebrating Zach’s 18th birthday on Dec. 23.

Price Gregory International, a leading energy infrastructure services provider with a head office in Houston, Texas, has a rich history in the pipeline industry and is credited with the development of many modern pipeline construction techniques used world wide to this day.