To all forum members:
I’d really appreciate your help with something that I’m working on. A coworker’s son, Ryan Mattingly, was recently diagnosed with AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia). This is the worst of the two types of Leukemia that a child can have. He has started Chemo treatments, and until recently he was doing quite well. Today was a bad day though and he has been resting a lot. He will have to have a bone marrow transplant. They are taking DNA from his sister to see if she is a match. The odds are 1 in 4 that his sibling will match. She is his only hope of a perfect match. If she can't then he’ll have to go outside to the network and see if he can find one close to him. This will mean further complications, but will be the only way he can be saved. The Chemo alone isn't quite enough.
Ryan, who’s 16, eats, sleeps, breathes, and lives for motorcycles. What I’m asking you to do is to please take a minute or two and drop him a short note and send him a pic of you on your bike. If you’ve got some great shots of you at the track, at the Gap, or simply out on your favorite backroad, I know he’d love to see them. I told his Mom I was going to ask you guys for these and she said he’d really appreciate it and think it was cool. Ryan doesn’t know about this, however. She also told me it was OK to give out his address, see below. Getting some pics and cards from total strangers may sound odd, but since we’re kind of like a dysfunctional motorcycle family, the cards and pictures would be from family.
So, all that being said, on behalf of his Mom, it would mean a lot to me if you would drop a short note to Ryan, send him some pics (I know some of you guys are total hams and love for others to see you in action!), some stickers, basically anything related to motorcycles, etc.
His address is:
Ryan Mattingly
8443 Ann Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63114
Thank you so very much for your time and efforts. As a cancer survivor myself, I know how much cards and thoughts of encouragement mean when you’re feeling like he is.