Support Ryker's Fight Against Rare Disease

As you may know, my 7-year-old niece Ryker (Ceeanne Holmes and Kyle Geary’s daughter) was diagnosed with Very Severe Aplastic Anemia (VSAA). Aplastic anemia is a rare and serious blood disorder characterized by the bone marrow's failure to produce enough blood cells. VSAA occurs when blood-forming stem cells in bone marrow can't produce enough red blood cells, white blood cells or platelets. There are only a few cases per million children each year diagnosed with this life-threatening disease.

Ryker’s case is considered very severe, and she will be undergoing many treatments in the coming months such as blood and platelet infusions, IV antibiotics, and chemotherapy when they are able to find a bone marrow donor. Ryker’s medical team is at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital in Iowa City, Iowa and following the bone marrow transplant, Ryker and her parents will stay in Iowa City for another 2-3 months, to keep a close eye on Ryker while she heals from the marrow transplant. Until then, they will be driving Ryker 2 hours one way to get infusions at least twice a week, possibly more due to her increased risk of infections. The smallest injury can have catastrophic consequences.

While the hospital staff has assured them, the Ronald McDonald house is close, it may or may not be available for them to use at the time of her transplant and they may be forced to stay in a hotel. In addition to missing work, Ceeanne and Kyle will and already are starting to accrue many extra expenses associated with traveling back and forth to be with her.

On behalf of Ryker and her parents, and families, I would like to start fundraising for them to help alleviate the financial burden this will cause them, allowing them to focus their time and energy on helping Ryker fight!

With all this said, we are looking for donors to sponsor T-shirts (approx. $700.00) for her family and friends to sell to offset some of the expenses already coming in and we are starting a Go Fund me page for them as well. This is the best option with their families being in two different states. If you would like to sponsor money for T shirts or donate to them directly, please contact me and Il get you the information.