In progeria, the spirit is willing, but the body is not

Zach with his dog Carmen in his home. He has had a very long year with the effects of his progeria having made themselves felt more than ever in his tiny 10-year-old body. — TNS

Zach Pickard has had a rough, sometimes physically painful, year. But because he is Zach, a tiny person with an outsize personality, a quick wit and the unflagging devotion of a new dog who is bigger than he is, you wouldn’t know it.

Some people enjoy bits and pieces of this world. Zach loves everything, all the time: magnets, making “slime”, Nintendo, Impractical Jokers on TV, YouTube and KFC, with which his mother says he is obsessed.