Stand with Leo in His Year-Long Fight

Hello,

My name is Leonidas Rickard and I am 10 years old. Just recently I have been diagnosed Ewing Sarcoma. This all came about when I started feeling some pain in my knee one morning.

At first we all thought that I might have sprained it, or hyper extended it while I was sleeping. After awhile of it not healing up, or going away, my Dad took me to the doctor.

That doctor then referred us to OHSU hospital. They first said I probably just had an anerysmal bone cyst in my leg, but they had to do more testing.

They scheduled me for an operation to remove it from my leg. I was put under anethstesia and the doctors performed surgery to remove it. We had to wait a little while longer for the biopsy results to come in.

When the results finally arrived, turns out I have cancer. When they started to explain how to cure me, they said I would have to go through chemotherapy and have my leg amputated above the knee.

They explained that there was a chance the cancer could come back if they tried to save the leg, also I would no longer be able to play sports or run. A prosthetic leg would allow me to live life mostly normal and increase my chances of getting rid of cancer for good.

After hearing the news, all of my family became very sad, it hurt worse to see them cry everytime they talked about it worse then hearing the news from the doctors.

The road ahead will be rough, but we are fighters. First I will have to go through 12 weeks of chemo, then I will have surgery to take my leg. After that I will have 16 more weeks of chemo. The doctors say this battle will be close to a full year.

Our goal right now, is to get help to keep our family afloat, while they take time off work to help me get through this difficult time in my life.

Thank you so much for reading my story

Leo.