A Maple Ridge resident is trying to raise money to help her brother and his family with their finances after he was diagnosed with leukemia.
Ashley Olson started a GoFundMe to help her brother Ryan Olson, a resident of Aldergrove, following his diagnosis a little more than two months ago.
According to the GoFundMe, Ryan had been feeling unusually tired and when he started having night sweats, he knew something was wrong.
Routine blood work would turn his life upside down.
He was told to go to the hospital immediately and at Abbotsford Regional Hospital he received the news that he had acute leukemia.
Within hours Ryan was transferred to Vancouver General Hospital, where he began aggressive treatment right away.
“The leukemia had already spread to his brain, requiring weekly lumbar punctures and intensive chemotherapy,” explained Ashley on the fundraiser’s online site.
Ashley told The News that Ryan’s wife Kelli is currently holding the family together.
Ryan has moved out of his house in Aldergrove and is currently living with his parents and sister in Maple Ridge while he is undergoing treatment so his father is easily able to take him to his hospital appointments in Vancouver.
Kelli, an educational assistant, who has only been working in this capacity for one year, is unable to take time off.
Without Ryan’s income they are already down $2,000 each month, even with disability payments, and they have two sons – aged five and 10 – whom Ryan is not able to see in person because if they are sick, they will pass the virus onto him.
Ashley does not want her brother or her sister-in-law to worry about paying the bills. She wants him to focus on his therapy and getting better.
Currently Ryan is undergoing four days of chemotherapy, plus the lumbar punctures to relieve fluid from his brain.
This means he is travelling back and forth from VGH five days a week, with a couple of days off in between each cycle.
Ryan will soon undergo a stem cell transplant. There is no date yet, but when it happens, Ashley said, he will be in the hospital for another month and chemotherapy will be even more intensive.
Ashley thinks it might be two years before her brother is able to work again.
“That’s why I started the GoFundMe, to try and help them raise some money for the next little while, hoping it will help to relieve some of that stress for them,” said Ashley.
Ashley is trying to raise $40,000 for the family. As of Thursday there have been 108 donations, making the total raised to date $14,829.
“Ryan has always been the kind of dad who never missed a chance to take his kids mountain biking, snowboarding, hiking, or exploring the outdoors. He’s strong, active, and full of life,” wrote Ashley on the GoFundMe site.
“Now, instead of mountain trails, his days are spent in treatment wards facing unimaginable challenges. Despite everything, he meets each day with strength and determination. His greatest motivation is simple: getting back to his family and the life he loves.”
To donate go to: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-for-ryan-a-fathers-fight-against-leukemia
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