Help The Pearse Family

Please ignore the “target”, it’s just a requirement of the page to include it ** 


Many of you have expressed the wish to help in
any way you can, and this is so kind and
encouraging. I have set up this page as a way
of providing practical assistance with the many
costs that will build up in the near future
because of Ryan’s illness .

This page has been set up to help my friend Ryan
and his family. Many of you will know his back
story and his journey but if not he has a
Facebook blog where he writes updates on his
journey
www.facebook.com/surmountology.
Ry is a 40 year old amazing Dad to two
wonderful kids, loving husband and best friend
of nearly 16 years to Vikki and great friend and mentor
to many more people. He was diagnosed with
head and neck cancer a few years back, which
would change his and his family’s lives forever
more.

It was to be a large tumour burden and had
travelled to his lymphatic system too.
He underwent a few surgeries and then various
treatments including radiation, sadly he then
had to undergo further treatment several
months later, as more was found on his follow up scans.

Unfortunately, the process was far from straight
forward as he suffered many issues along the
way, just a few most notable things he has had to
overcome along the way are a serious crash of
his system after one round of surgery, a
respiratory arrest during one of the procedures,
then being accidentally stabbed through the
trachea during a diagnostic procedure which
caused bleeding into and restriction of his
airway, as well as cardiac problems from his
treatment,
that saw him on cardiac intensive care.
But he refused to be beaten, his poor body took
quite an onslaught, but has fought so hard for a
very long time.

That wasn’t to be the end of his battles though,
life still continued to knock him down every time
he tried to get up, and at the end of 2018 he
suddenly developed excruciating pains in his
limbs, his voice weakened and along with
various other nasty symptoms started to lose
the ability to stand and walk.

Over the last year this has got progressively
worse and seen him experience the most
horrendous pain and debility, as he waited for
the specialists to work out what was happening. He has been under every possible specialty and had so many tests and scans he has lost count.

All of which frustratingly showed problem after problem, but nothing that
clearly told the doctors the root cause of his
deranged blood results, abnormal scans and
physical symptoms. Eventually with the help of
some neurological experts in London, it is now
believed he has a condition of the peripheral
motor neurons, called neuromyotonia.
It is a disorder of the nerves that supply the
muscles, where they cramp, twist, spasm and
contort with constant involuntary muscle
activity. Emitting chronic pain signals and in Ry’s case depriving him of the ability to walk or use
one of his arms fully. If I can add a video of an
example of his cramps and painful fasciculations I will, but if not you can see what I mean on his
blog. There are no words to adequately describe what he has to go through on a daily basis. He is such an inspiration and a fighter,im so
immensely proud of him and his family.

All the above means he rarely leaves the bed
except if Vikki is about to help move him and
prepare any move in advance. He doesn’t leave
the house sometimes for several weeks at a
time. Dosed up on painkillers his family will try
to get
him out in his wheelchair some weekends, but
this can be very difficult indeed. He is so weak
and tired and no longer sleeps apart from maybe an hour or so when he passes out and the sheer
exhaustion overrides the pain.

Ry not only gave many years to the NHS and his
pharmacy profession but in latter years was a
highly respected senior business executive and
took great pride in his work and achievements. His work and the people he worked with meant
everything to him. He earned very good money
and proudly took great care of his family. Having
been unable to work for over a year, his earnings
have taken a huge hit and the family rely on a
significantly reduced insurance payment, as they
try to keep things ticking over. His wife Vikki
works part time as a nurse in a doctors surgery
this is also a struggle for her working and
looking after the children and Ryan, as well as
running the house.

Ry didn’t want to give up hope, and as such didn’t want to accept assistance in the form of lifting
equipment, house modifications and such like.
All this remains too real and painful to accept.
Well a year on, he is faced with the harsh reality
that he and Vikki must start buying various
costly bits of kit, undertake building works in the house and generally try and give him back even
the most basic quality of life.

To be able to get him up and to the loo for
example without sustaining the many nasty head
injuries he has had to date, or shower safely, or
visit the lounge or kitchen would be a massive
improvement. I know Vikki would love for him to
get to the garden in the spring, for the first time
in what will have been about 18 months. Most of
all to allow him to do some dad stuff again,
like visit upstairs on a stair lift for the kids story
time or sit comfortably in a seat to watch a
movie, there are so many simple but currently
unattainable things they could do with some
help.

As many of you will know, Ry is one of the most
community spirited and charitable people there is, he helped all manner of local causes and gave so much of his time to helping others, and from
the messages the family have received in recent
weeks, that hasn’t gone unnoticed with the kind offers of help. Ry and Vik are not too pleased
that I am doing this, as they have always seen
themselves as the helpers not the helped.

The culture shock of the life they had to where
they are now is not easy to manage at all. They
face some big challenges ahead, and it would be
silly to ignore the offers of help that Ryan has
received from some really kind and lovely
people. So here it is, a gofundme page, thank you for reading Ryan’s  story, I know everyone has
their own pressures and challenges and do
not expect anything at all from anyone, Ryan and Vikki don’t want to be seen as a charity case but facing all that they are I’m sure they would 
be very grateful to those that wish to support
them.

Any donation, how ever small will hopefully
enable the family to make the house more
comfortable for Ryan and for him to have some
form of a life back.

Thank you for your time