Zach Lederer jokes he was a little “drugged up” when, in his hospital bed, he lifted his arms in a strongman pose, stared resolutely ahead and allowed himself to be photographed.
After battling childhood cancer, Lederer, an 18-year-old from Ellicott City, wanted anyone who would listen to know he could do it again. On Jan. 25, surgeons at Johns Hopkins had removed a cancerous tumor from his brain, but some of it remained.
Another fight was ahead.
He said he thought, “If I make these muscles and show everyone how strong I am right now, they’ll stop worrying about me and think, ‘Oh he’ll be great.’”
His father posted the picture on Facebook.
Hours later, his cousins Jon Feldman and Joey O’Dwyer lifted their arms in the same pose in a show of strength and solidarity, and posted as well.
“The ‘Tebow’ is no longer ‘in,’" read the caption, referring to the drop-on-one-knee-and-pray pose started by Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. "Now it’s the Zach Lederer,” read the caption. “Stay strong, big man. We love you!”
