Fellow paddler gets dealt a pretty sh*tty hand

[kayadogg]

Zoners, last summer my friend Ray was training for a 22 mile race in Tahoe. He's 59 and in excellent shape. He's addicted to paddling, just like many of us. He put in the time and killed it in the race, finishing 9th overall and 2nd in his age group. Throughout the summer he was having some back pain that he attributed to an aggressive training schedule. 2 weeks after the race, the pain was so bad that he drove himself to the emergency room. 4 days after that he was discussing chemo options with an oncologist. To make things worse, he was initially misdiagnosed as having a large mass B-cell lymphoma, so the first 6 weeks of his chemo was basically useless. Ray actually has a rare "mutated form" known as Double Hit Lymphoma. The day after Thanksgiving he was airlifted from San Diego to Stanford Medical Center, where he is expected to be until March or April.

This isn't a pity post or anything like that. Ray is a warrior. He is truly saying F*&@ Cancer and smiling through this shit every day. His spirit is so strong that he just emailed me the other day and said that once he finishes the initial 2 months of chemo, his doctor said he could probably get outside but couldn't paddle because it would be too much twisting and strain on his back. So what does he do? He goes online and buys himself a prone Bark board. The hardest part for Ray is that he's very active and sitting in a bed all day is making him lose his mind. In addition to that, they require that his wife and daughter stay within a 30 minute drive from the hospital at all times. They live in Carlsbad so they've relocated to an apartment complex across from the hospital for now.

The bottomline is that Ray is a paddler and the paddling community, while small, is very strong and supportive. At the very least, please keep Ray in your thoughts and send some love and support to him, even if it's silent. If you feel like doing more, you can send a donation to his fight using the Go Fund Me link below.

Happy Holidays.

https://www.gofundme.com/6cfg58ng

[OUTSIDEWAVE]

 I will 

[surfercook]

That is a suk @ss sh!tty hand! Hope the dude survives it. Can't even imagine.

[TN_SUP]

Done. Hope he beats the cancer and his family hangs in there.

[PDLSFR]

Thanks John for sharing his story and our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.

[mrbig]

My thoughts, prayers, and good wishes are with him and his family.

[supthecreek]

With his resolve, strong will and friends like you, he has all cylinders firing in the auxiliary engine.
My best positive energy to he and his family.

[WhatsSUP]

Major <<<<<<<<<<<<<<MOJO>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> to Ryan!

Thoughts and prayers...

[SUPsideATX]

Why doesn't this happen to the bad people of the world! Thanks for sharing this story and I hope the best for him!