LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – UMC Children\u2019s Hospital has become a familiar battleground for Zackary Speck, from his premature birth in 2020 through a leukemia diagnosis a few years later.<\/p>\n
An unexpected arrival<\/p>\n
Zackary is the first-born son of Lillie and Christopher Speck. His birth was unexpected and was prompted by his twin sister.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went in for a little appointment and all of a sudden, here they were coming,\u201d Lillie Speck said.<\/p>\n
The twins were born at about 27 weeks in 2020. Zackary\u2019s sister did not survive.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only were we grieving, but we were also celebrating and trying to be there for him,\u201d Lillie Speck said. \u201cYou know, they supported us in whatever we needed. And so it was nothing more than we could have ever asked for.\u201d<\/p>\n
That support came in the NICU of UMC Children\u2019s Hospital, where Zackary stayed for 69 days.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery parent celebrates milestones, but it just seemed like we were celebrating every small thing with him, because he, he was fighting,\u201d Lillie Speck said. \u201cHe started fighting since he was born.\u201d<\/p>\n
A new fight at age 4<\/p>\n
That fight was needed for a battle that came when Zackary was 4 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt didn\u2019t seem until, like, maybe the third ear infection he developed the rash,\u201d Lillie Speck said. \u201cAnd so we were all just thrown by that.\u201d<\/p>\n
What started as a rash became a severe bloody nose while Christopher and Lillie Speck were out of town.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got a call from Christopher\u2019s parents that he had had another really bad bloody nose to where they had already been trying to stop it for, what, an hour? Could not stop it,\u201d Lillie Speck said. \u201cIt was starting to, he was starting to throw up with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re driving through the middle of the night, not knowing, praying for the best, but you\u2019re just kind of in a state of shock, you know, everything\u2019s kind of going through your mind,\u201d Christopher Speck said.<\/p>\n
Reaching a diagnosis<\/p>\n
The Specks took Zackary to UMC Children\u2019s Hospital, where Dr. Kishor Bhende helped determine what was wrong. In March of 2025, he was diagnosed with B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, some of those symptoms are so nonspecific and vague, it sometimes does take a little bit of a time to reach to the right place and get the diagnosis done,\u201d Dr. Bhende said.<\/p>\n
Dr. Bhende, a pediatric oncologist, said the persistent illness was a clue, and further testing, including for cancer, was needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen it was very easy for us to kind of work him through the diagnostic process and establish that he has leukemia,\u201d Dr. Bhende said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think you can describe what it\u2019s like when they tell you those words, so…\u201d Lillie Speck said.<\/p>\n
The Specks were back at UMC Children\u2019s Hospital, a familiar setting, with a new fight ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had already fought so hard to even be alive back then,\u201d Lillie Speck said. \u201cLike, why is he having to fight again?\u201d<\/p>\n
Treatment and therapy<\/p>\n
Dr. Bhende said the treatment would be intense. He\u2019s gone through several months of chemotherapy as well as an appendectomy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has to get a port placement done to do the chemotherapy,\u201d Dr. Bhende said. \u201cAnd then he has to get the lumbar punctures and at the same time we do the chemotherapy there. So there are multiple things we do to treat the leukemia. And the chemotherapy has got its side effects.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Bhende said a partnership with the Children\u2019s Oncology Group led to Zackary\u2019s targeted immunotherapy, a new therapy to decrease the risk of relapse.<\/p>\n
Since September 30, he\u2019s been in remission with another year of treatment ahead.<\/p>\n
Support beyond medicine<\/p>\n
Alongside that treatment, the Children\u2019s Miracle Network provides another resource: support through child life specialists, therapy dog Sable, and playrooms designed to create a welcoming environment for patients and families.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey try to make everything feel as normal as possible in this situation that we\u2019re in and all the kids that are there,\u201d Christopher Speck said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t make him as scared to go,\u201d Lillie Speck said. \u201cIt\u2019s always like, oh, we\u2019re going to the balloon room or the cloud room. And so it makes it a little bit easier of, yeah, that\u2019s where we\u2019re going or we\u2019re going to the new clinic.\u201d<\/p>\n
That pediatric clinic is the TLC2 Cancer Center, which bears the Speck family name. Zackary\u2019s family gave back to the hospital that supported him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just wanted to, you know, be a part of that and help pass that along to other kids, you know, that may need it,\u201d Christopher Speck said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019ll follow along after us,\u201d Lillie Speck said.<\/p>\n
This story is part of KCBD\u2019s 43rd Annual Children\u2019s Miracle Network Broadcast, a fundraiser for UMC Children\u2019s Hospital. Donations can be made by calling 806-747-KIDS.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – UMC Children\u2019s Hospital has become a familiar battleground for Zackary Speck, from his premature…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[57642,151519,168,170,169],"class_list":["post-438223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-factory","tag-industrial-production","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}