My name is Richard O’Hamill.
Sixteen years ago, after surgery for Crohn’s disease, I designed the first Stealth Belt in my parents’ basement. I simply wanted to live a full and active life with an ostomy, to run, surf, and travel without fear or discomfort. That personal need grew into a mission: to help people with an ostomy regain confidence, mobility, and dignity.
Since then, the belts I helped create have supported hundreds of thousands of people around the world. This has never been only about a product or a company. It has always been about people supporting one another through one of the most personal and challenging medical experiences a person can face.
I dedicated myself to expanding access to ostomy solutions, sponsoring academic studies to prove the benefits of support belts and creating one-of-a-kind belts for patients facing cancer and severe illness. I helped patients secure insurance reimbursements in addition to donating belts to children’s ostomy camps, and kept production going during the pandemic when supply chains collapsed. Every step of the way, the community supported me, and I always tried to give back even more.
That same community inspires me now—and today, I humbly ask for your support.
Why I Need Your Help
After the passing of my business partners, changes in company control led to legal disputes. As part of those proceedings, the court has issued orders that affect my ability to continue building and operating my new ostomy support company.
To honor and comply with those directives, I have temporarily paused business operations. As a result, my income has stopped, and my ability to assist and support patients who reach out to me daily is limited while this process plays out.
For a long time, like many small business owners, I was trying to navigate this without the experienced legal guidance I truly needed. I now have the right legal team in place, and with their help, I am energized to move forward the right way and to finally be able to defend myself and my work.
What Your Support Will Do
Complying with the court’s order means temporarily pausing all business activity, which has stopped my income for now. During this time, I still need to support my family, including my two young daughters, while managing the legal costs necessary to resolve this properly and continue serving the ostomy community.
I am asking for help so I can continue this mission in good faith. Funds raised will go toward legal costs, compliance obligations, and basic support for my family until I am able to resume serving this community. My goal is not simply to defend myself. It is to preserve the work we built together, to continue advancing solutions for people with ostomies, and to ensure that patients everywhere have options that give them dignity, confidence, and the freedom to live boldly.
How You Can Help
If my work has ever helped you, your patients, or someone you love, or if you believe in supporting people who are trying to make the world a little better for those with challenges you are fortunate not to face, I would be deeply grateful for your support.
With your support, I can navigate this chapter, emerge stronger, and continue serving a community that means everything to me.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for standing with me. And thank you for believing that people with an ostomy deserve tools and resources that support independence and opportunity. This mission has never belonged to just me. It has always been shared by everyone who has lived this journey or walked beside someone who has.
With gratitude,
Richard O'Hamill
Organizer
