Support young Ryan as he battles a rare cancer

The special little boy in the picture above is Ryan. He is my son Austin’s BEST friend, and an extremely important part of our family. He’s a smart, and sweet, and kind, and funny, and polite, and gentile little boy. He plays basketball and the cello. He loves video games and hanging out with his friends. When he’s not on Roblox with my son, you’ll find him riding his bike, riding on roller coasters, hanging at the beach, playing sports in the yard, and beating Austin at chess, and Monopoly. It’s uncanny how he always wins!

At just 11 years old, Ryan has been diagnosed with an extremely rare, and somewhat aggressive form of cancer called Mesenchymal Chondrosarcoma. MCS is a rare, high-grade malignancy cancer with an unusual variant of chondrosarcoma affecting bone and soft tissues. Fewer than 800 cases have been reported in medical history.

It started with a small bump on his temple- that when X-Rayed quickly escalated to an MRI, which quickly escalated to a hospital stay and a biopsy. Ryan and his family were told that he had a tumor on his skull bone. As you can imagine this was an extremely scary and difficult couple of days for Ryan and his family. The results of the biopsy were inconclusive (mainly because this was such a rare cancer that these doctors have not seen before and had trouble diagnosing). But the surgeon knew that regardless of the biopsy results, he wanted to remove the entire tumor to dissect it fully. Ryan’s surgery was scheduled almost immediately, and after an extremely long day, and a lot of hours in TWO operating rooms and TWO separate hospitals, the entire tumor was removed. Ryan’s skull was cut open from near his ear to the top of his head, and a large chunk of it removed. He currently has titanium mesh where a chunk of his skull used to be, and at some point will have to undergo reconstructive surgery to replace the missing bone with an implant.

It took what felt like forever for his parents to get the results that they were praying they would not hear regarding the tumor. Ryan has cancer. Smart, sweet, kind, funny, polite, gentile Ryan has cancer. We were all completely gutted by the news. Absolutely devastated! Just a few weeks ago he was a perfectly healthy little boy, and now he has cancer.

Ryan is a champ. He has maintained the strongest and most positive attitude I could possibly imagine through all of this. While his parents (and my husband and I) were meticulously combing the entire web for any and all information we could find, Ryan was playing Roblox, and hanging out with his friends, and laughing, and joking, and having a good time. I know better than to think he was actually okay, and not at all scared, and not at all affected. But his brave and calm attitude was so admirable. It’s a true reflection of who Ryan is!

Here is where I humbly ask you for help. On Thursday of this coming week, Ryan will have his medi-port implanted and he will begin a 20 week long chemotherapy and radiation treatment. He will be in the hospital for 3 days a week for his chemotherapy treatment and then another day in a DIFFERENT hospital for his radiation treatment. Each hospital is over an hour away from their home. His parents, Ralph and Tracy (who we haven’t really talked about yet, but couldn’t be kinder, more generous, more hard working, more genuine people), will need to take off of work multiple days a week, leave their other children, travel to these hospitals, and even spend some time each week in a hotel. For 20 weeks. I would love to reduce some of the financial burden this will cause so they can focus all of their attention and energy on the mental and emotional toll that this will take both on themselves and Ryan.

I know Ralph and Tracy. And I know that if this were my son, they would do the same for him. It’s the kind of people they are. And I know Ryan. He would be the first person there to help his best friend through a tough time. It’s the kind of kid he is.

So please consider donating to Ryan, Ralph, and Tracy to help them through this incredibly difficult time. Help make life just a little easier while their whole worlds are turned upside down. If you are not in a position to donate, I know they would gladly accept prayers and good vibes sent their way.

Much thanks!!!

#teamryan

#ryanstrong