At age 24, Joseph was diagnosed with Ankylosing spondylitis . It is hereditary as Joseph's father Joe Roy (now deceased) and my wife have also been diagnosed.

It's a rare type of crippling arthritis that causes pain and fusing in his spine. There is no cure and treatment consists of symptom management. It has already spread up to his neck and has damaged joints in other parts of his body.

After what Joseph thought was mild back pain in 2010, he was referred to a neurosurgeon who only after one year decided to implant steel rods into Joseph's back.


In 2012, he had another spinal surgery to try to grant Joseph some extended mobility so he could continue to be upright and walk.


In May of 2015, he had a hip replacement surgery followed by admittance into a full time nursing care facility where both his mental and physical health degraded exponentially. At this time, he was unable to stand or even sit upright in a chair without assistance. Even with frequent visits from family and friends, Joseph's spirit was weakened and depression had set in.

For more than 6 years, Joseph was in the same room on the second floor looking out the same window. He hadn't had sunshine on his skin or had the ability to breath the same fresh air you and I take for granted. We held prayer vigils, had Mass said in his name and continued to pray for him and visit him.



In 2020, Joseph was separated from family for more than 10 months due to Covid-19. Although we could still call and drop off packages to him, we weren't able to visit with him and he was not allowed to attend any specialty doctors appointments. This was terrifying for us and detrimental for him. The nursing staff was limited in their exposure to patients sometimes only having a single human interaction for the day. His access to food and medicine were also limited.

Joseph contracted Covid while in the care of the nursing facility even during lock down. He told us that the muscle and joint pain from Covid was devastating.  He suffered several seizures that caused him to be unresponsive for several periods. He was taken to the ER in September of 2020 because of his low oxygen stats. He also was diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia in December of 2020.

Coupled with his severe depression and numerous physical infirmities, Joseph was in a downward spiral until it was decided that Joseph needed to back with family instead of in a facility.

Joseph's mother Toni had been working on getting a home closer to town to accommodate Joseph and to be better positioned to receive home health care. Joseph's brother Scott  rushed to build a ramp himself in time to get the hospital bed in the house as services and monies that are supposed to be allocated for that type of thing had been approved but not yet been dispersed.

Joseph finally came home to live with his mother Toni.

In February of 2021, after being brought home from the nursing facility for a few days, Joseph was taken yet again to the hospital where they found that while in the care of the facility, he had lost significant weight, was dehydrated, had a partially deflated lung, his wounds were not healing  and he had become septic. After treatment and antibiotics, he was released to go back home. The focus is now on home health and wound care.

Joe is now 36 years old and is unable to walk or sit up, needs daily medical care and has large wounds on his legs and back. There have been periods where the metal rods and hardware in his back have broken through his skin.

Joseph is in need of a permanent handicapped accessible ramp to the front door, widening of his bedroom door to be able to go in and out in a wheelchair and an electrical hospital bed.

A donation of any amount would help see to these needs.