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Simon Cowell Donates £50,000 To Send Child With Rare Cancer To America

Simon Cowell Donates £50,000 To Send Child With Rare Cancer To America

Zac Oliver has a really rare form of leukaemia called Near Haploid

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

Despite his reputation as a ruthless and cruel music mogul, it turns out Simon Cowell might just actually be OK. He's donated £50,000 to help a young child who needs treatment for a serious illness in the United States.

The kid in question is called Zac Oliver, and he's only four years old. Zac has a really rare form of leukaemia called Near Haploid. That means that he needs to get to America so that he can have treatment that isn't currently available on the NHS.

Basically, his family need £500,000 to get him out to Philadelphia for what's called CAR-T therapy. So far, the good people of Shropshire have raised more than £350,000. Add Cowell's generous £50,000 to that, and they are nearly there.

Cowell also sent a video along ahead of a music festival that is taking place for Zac's benefit at Telford Town Hall this weekend.

The 59-year-old X Factor judge said: "I want to talk to you about Zac and Zacfest. This boy is four years old and needs money to get him to America to get the help he needs.

"So, I want you please to go on Zac Oliver's JustGiving page and whatever you can donate will make a difference. And because I don't like well-known people telling people to do something and don't do anything themselves, I'm going to donate £50,000. We're going to get there."

Caters News Agency

The video then went onto social media and was shared by Zac's mum, Hannah Oliver-Willets. She added: "Thank you to Simon Cowell for doing such an amazing job at supporting our cause. I explained to Zac that Simon has helped to pay for his special medicine.

"Zac said 'thanks si' lol, little does he know exactly what this actually means and how much closer we really are to getting him to the US."

After that, she went on to confirm that they are only around £100,000 away from their goal. That's still a decent way, but it's £400,000 closer than they were beforehand.

PA

This isn't the only thing that Simon has done to show his generosity recently. He gave £25,000 to charities that are trying to stop the dog meat trade.

The Humane Society International (HIS) posted: "Amazing news.

"Simon Cowell has generously donated £25,000 to our rescue appeal to help us close our 13th #dogmeat farm in #SouthKorea & save 200+ dogs! We are so grateful to Simon and Syco it means the world to us!"


See, he's not so bad after all.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: UK News, Charity, UK Entertainment, Simon Cowell, x factor