The first thing you should know is that my dear friend Chris Moore begged me not to do this. The thought of a hand-out legitimately turned her stomach, and I pretty much forced her to write these words. And with them, I ask you to help us raise the funds she needs to repair her incredibly upstanding, amazing young son's beautiful mind. This wonderful mom needs to fund her son's aid across the country from Oregon to Boston.

Here are the words I compelled her to write:

"Asher’s just a 16-year-old kid who loves animals, music, his friends and family. A good conversationalist, thoughtful, funny, and determined. A Scout, musician, martial arts student, debate team member, and all-around good kid. Unfortunately, Asher is also a chronic pain patient.

His chronic pain is a result of having had 4 concussions in the span of 6 years. None of them were sports-related injuries —he continued to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The first 3 were all sorts of trouble but Asher never gave up. He had all the classic concussion stuff and during those years, he was in and out of all kinds of doctors, therapies, and treatments. He was excited to start high school with no injuries—he was fired up!

However, in September 2021 he suffered his 4th concussion and this one caused Asher’s brain stem to go into overdrive because of all the repeated trauma to his brain. There was no turning back this time.

Since then, Asher has been living with post-traumatic headache syndrome and has had intense head pain 24 hours a day for these past 2 years. During that time, he has tried things like naturopathic remedies, countless sessions of different kinds of therapy well as numerous oral medications, 3 sets of botox injections, and 12 extremely painful IV infusions. He has not had a break from the pain and missed most of his Freshman and Sophomore years of high school.

The rest of his body is suffering, too, as the brain stem has convinced the nervous system that he is in danger all the time. He has been in a constant state of fight or flight for over 2 years now. This means things like nightmares, circulation problems, mood changes, exhaustion, tremors, nausea, fear of crowds, agitation…the list goes on. He has been tough through all of this but is losing hope.

Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Pediatric Neurology team has been working to help Asher and they said it’s time for something bigger. Asher was referred to Boston Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Pain Rehabilitation Center. Last week, he was evaluated and deemed a perfect fit for the program. A slot opened up for Tuesday, October 3. It’s a miracle they’re grateful for— Asher’s mom and caregiver have been reluctant to ask for help offset the cost of getting Asher and herself to/from Boston and living there for at least 4 weeks. However, so many people have reached out to her asking how they can help, and she FINALLY relented and agreed to this GoFundMe page.

Asher wants his life back. Chris wants her son back. It’s all about to happen…"

More from Mama, "A 4th concussion in Sept 2021 (another wrong place, wrong time situation ‍♀️) caused Asher’s brain stem to go into overdrive because of all the repeated trauma. He has been living with post-traumatic headache syndrome and has had intense head pain 24 hours a day for these past 2 years. The rest of his body is suffering, too, as the brain stem has convinced the nervous system that he is in danger all the time. He is in a constant state of fight or flight.

Over the past years, he has tried non-medical interventions as well as medications, various injections and extremely painful IV infusions. Doernbecher Children’s Hospital has been wonderful and working hard to help Asher. They put us in touch with Boston Children’s Hospital because Asher’s pain has not gotten better and he still can’t participate in his regular life activities.

We went to Boston last week and he was evaluated by the medical team at the Pediatric Pain Rehabilitation Center. They said they can and will help him—and a slot in their program opened up…OCTOBER 3rd!! We are filled with a new kind of hope after this long, exhausting journey. We also need to get our asses to Boston ASAP and will be living there for at least 4 weeks.

My oddly specific inquiry: Do any of you know anyone with a furnished apartment for rent or vacation rental in the Brookline, MA area? I heard back from one housing program and they’re full. I have applied to another one and am waiting to hear back. I have called the “discounted” hotels and the amount just for the first 4 weeks will be over $7,000. I know it’s a long shot but I don’t have time to be shy.

Asher said he’s just ready to get his life back. "

Look. Basically, this is me and many of Chris's dearest friends asking ... can we raise $16,000 for this wonderful woman and her amazing kind young man

I am doing my part, if you can swing it, please help however you can.

I almost never ask for anything, but this one means a ton to me. Like ... a lot.

Thanks.