Help the Sunby Family kick cancers ass

I'm setting up this gofundme for my dear friends, Kristen and Tony Sunby and their kids, Avery & Ezra. They are in desperate need of help in the most trying time of their lives (and if you know about the last 9 years of their lives, that is saying a LOT).

In March of 2022, Tony had terrible sciatic and back pain. I witnessed this first hand when he fell off a chair at my house trying to stand up. It was scary, and prompted a call to his doctor who told them to come in for an xray, thinking that maybe he had cracked a vertabrae when he slipped on ice a month early. Unfortunately, the xray discovered a tumor in his spine, which was both good news and bad news. Bad news because, duh, and good news because they found it early. They removed the tumor and sent it for a biopsy. Tony's pain subsided nearly immediately but the biopsy came back malignant. He was diagnosed with Burkitts Lymphoma. Before his chemo started, Tony's back pain was back to intolerable levels. His doctor said that it might have been caused by the tumor growing back. Think about that. Feeling a tumor growing. Jeez. So they buckled down and started chemo. Chemo was going as well, cancer wise, as it can be, but it's chemo. It's been rough on Tony physically, and he is now using a walker to get around. Tony was the main breadwinner for their family, he was working two jobs that involve physical labor when this befell him.

Kristen spent 18 months caretaking for her mother who was paralyzed with Transverse Myelitis, an extremely rare disease, while working a remote job from 2am to 4am, sleeping a few hours, then getting up to get the kids to school. Kristen's mom passed in 2019, and Kristen looked for work, but didn't find anything when the lockdown happened. She continued her remote work but then the company she worked for shut down in 2021. Now with Tony's chemo and hospitalization schedule, it's been impossible to find the time to even look for work, as Tony is unable to drive anymore. Kristen's father, who has rapidly progressing dementia, and is mostly deaf and blind, lives with Kristen's sister and brother in law- everyone is stretched so thin.

Here's the kicker. Tony's extreme pain and inability to walk? His doctor believes it is chemo induced Transverse Myelitis, the same EXTREMELY RARE disease that affected Kristen's mother, who ultimately passed from liver cancer. This disease is progressive and there isn't a cure. Tony will not be able to go back to either of his jobs, at least not any time soon. The fact that the two people closest to Kristen have had both cancer and this rare debilitating neurological disease is mindblowing.

OH AND WHAT'S THIS? Their car broke down today on the way home from a medical appointment? Seriously, you can't make this up.

If you were in a Chicago punk band from 1994 and beyond, you definitely met Tony. (If you were in an El Paso punk band from 1988 to 1994, you knew him too.) He has bought your record or a tee shirt, I promise you. If you went to a party at my place in Logan Square back in the day, you met Kristen- she probably charmingly convinced you to do something silly. These two are the most fun, kind, generous people I know and they have been through the ringer.

They have reached the end of everything- their rope, their finances, their short term disability insurance- and they are in desperate need of help. Please, anything you can give would help. We just want to keep them afloat. Thank you.