News Update
Note: This information is reposted from a Facebook post for this fundraiser. Our hearts go out to Joe Ryan and his family, and we thank our fans for any support they can give Joe during this time. Here is Joe's post:
For those that don't know, in 1993, I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, had some ups and downs in High School then it went away for a few years. In 1997, I had to have most of my large intestine and colon removed and reconstructed. I was good in that front for a good 20 years, although the constant use of steriods led to related arthritis problems in my knees and feet. In 2018, I was diagnosed with stage 3 rectal cancer. Went through chemo, radiation and surgery, then later in 2019, it spread to my liver and lungs, making it stage 4, terminal. The best they could do was try to treat it and prolong my life as long as my body could handle the chemo. In early to mid 2020, I had a seizure from one of the medications they were giving me that was pivotal in starving the tumors while the chemo was shrinking them. I then had an in and out relationship with my hospital for dehydration and gallbladder removal... and now my liver functions are being compromised by the chemo and was almost hospitalized for liver failure. They're slowly getting to the bottom of what is happening, I'll find out later today or tomorrow my blood work results to see if it continues to improve. Best case, my liver goes back to normal and I can continue with chemo(what I'm hoping for)...Worst case scenario I'll have to stop chemo and will have to rely on clinical trials and other unproven treatment.
Hopefully it doesn't come to that.
With that, last year I did a Tshirt campaign to help. My close friends and family helped me out and I was able to order 75 t-shirts for them. When I was having my design made, I also had my artists make me a design for a coin. I was hoping to hold off a couple years, but to be safe, I wanted to get the ball rolling sooner rather than later(just in case).
Below you'll see my design, where you see white, it'll be the metal coin, the grey with be textured metal, the rest will be like enamel pins and painted. My hopes in doing this, and in case you're not familiar with Challenge Coins, they're usually used by the military and police/firefighters/etc... to be made to be given to individuals who overcome certain challenges. They've also been incorporated in non-profit groups where they're used for walks, runs or a memorial pieces to remember a fallen member.
Mine would fall under the latter, basically either to keep with you in your pocket and when you're overcome with life challenges, you reach in hold the coin and remember my fight and use that strength to push forward... or to display on a shelf/mantle and to remember me by.
So that's the back story. If you would like a Joerhyno Challenge Coin, please let me know how many at Joerhyno@sbcglobal.net.
That same email address will be used for payment via PayPal. Please pay as goods and services, so I can use paypal to ship them when they come in. Right now, it is a 2 month waiting period, so my hopes is to have this open till the end of Sept and ship end of Nov.
Coins are $15 shipped in the US. If you are international it'll be $30 shipped, cheapest 1st class international is about $14-16, I have no control over this.
Money raised from this will be used to pay for the coins, pay for shipping and the rest goes into an account for funeral expenses and anything left over goes to my son's college fund.
Thank you all, love you all and remember to hug your loved ones as tomorrow isn't guaranteed. - Joe Ryan
Published on 09.22.20