Day 10…We rode for John and Michael!

Michael and John…We rode for both of you today. It was a beautiful sunny and crisp morning with a really solid crew of Cal’s riders. John, we know that you were looking down from heaven and Michael, we are hoping God does not have plans to bring you into his arms for years to come. It was an honor to ride for both of you today even though I crashed on some black gravel that looked like asphalt and became kind of an unfortunate distraction for the group. I got talked into going to urgent care in Danville vs finishing the remaining 20 miles of the ride and as it turned out, I did not have many options as I cracked my bike frame in the process. At the end of the day, I am a bit beat up with a bent pinky and a swollen/bruised thumb but I am determined to use one of the extra bikes Cal’s has brought, so I can finish the Cal’s Angels ride in your honor.  


John…I never met you but when we talked about your story this morning, I was floored by your faith in God. Your acceptance of your DIPG diagnosis as detailed in your obituary (below) floored me! I did not believe in God until I was 40 and here you are as a 9 year old with such faith- well, it’s truly inspiring!!!


John’s obituary…I believe in God, but man it is hard to read an obituary for a 9 year old!


John Stotz squeezed every ounce of life out of his nine years before he tucked safely into the arms of Jesus on January 21, 2023, surrounded by his family. 


He was greatly loved by his parents, Rob and Jen, sisters, Ellie and Emma (and his soon to be brother, Brandon), his dogs and army of grandparents, aunts, uncle’s, cousins, and friends. John Stotz never met a stranger, and all who knew him were left forever changed because of their time with this extraordinary boy.


John was passionate about many things, but his main loves were Jesus, people, animals in sports of all kinds. He was quite simply full of joy. He faced a terminal DIPG diagnosis, completely without fear, trusting that God chose the number of his days, and set his mind and living in a way that brought glory to God and joy to others. And he did it exceptionally well, with a maturity way beyond his years. He especially loved his community at Harvest Christian Academy, and the way the school families loved on the Stotz family over the past year has been overwhelming. 


Michael…we know you are still in the fight and your mom was kind enough to share your story which I want everyone to read and I want EVERYONE TO PRAY FOR YOU. The power of prayer can be magical!


Michael will be 10 years old in December and has been battling stage 4 Neuroblastoma since he was 9 months old (think about that…he has been battling cancer his whole life!!!!). His cancer was found after a well-baby check up, he had zero symptoms and was overall healthy and happy. After completing a year of chemotherapy treatment, Michael was considered NED "no evidence of disease" and was sent home with a 96% probability that cancer would never return. Four years later, in the middle of kindergarten, he had a major widespread relapse of cancer. He did more intense treatments including chemo, radiation, surgery and immunotherapy. He traveled to NYC one week a month for a year - even during Covid - for a clinical trial. Unfortunately, he relapsed 2 more times within 15 months. One relapse was cancer on the chest wall which required a major surgery to cut through his sternum. After recovering from that in May of 2020, Michael returned to Chicago cancer free. He did 2 years of chemo-immunotherapy and then just immunotherapy to keep him clear. He remained NED from 2020 to June of 2023 when doctors found another spot of Neuroblastoma on his right shin bone. Michael is currently doing chemo and radiation locally in Chicago. 


Michael has 5 year old twin sisters and hates missing school and family time for treatment. He LOVES Cal's Angels and was recently featured on the CBS news with Stacey Wahlberg to talk about the mission and raise awareness.  He exudes joy wherever he goes and makes the best of every situation, even when he's stuck in the hospital. He loves to make others smile by telling jokes or coloring pictures to hand out.  Michael loves to ride his dirt bike, play outside, go to parks, play Nintendo Switch, is learning guitar and hopes to be a worship leader like Phil Wickham when he grows up.  Although the cancer is no longer lighting up on a recent scan, he will need to move onto a new 2 year clinical trial in hopes to keep him cancer free for the long term.  


To my friends, family and acquaintances..we need to keep fighting, raising awareness, raising funds for clinical trials and putting pressure on our government to increase funding for pediatric cancer!


Michael…



John…

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 1, 2023 at 5:08 PM

    Thank GOD for HELMETS! You're in the home stretch, Rick, hang in there! Love you, Mom

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 3…This is for you Ava Olson!

Image
Day 3 - Cal’s Angels W.A.R. on Wheels Today we rode for Ava Olson. Ava suffered from  an incurable form of cancer called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) which is an aggressive type of childhood cancer that forms in the brainstem. They are very rare and almost always occur in the pediatric population. Ava died 6 months and 10 days after her diagnosis.  I had the pleasure of riding with Ken Olson and the rest of the Cal’s Angels crew today. Ken told us that Ava loved “Do Rad Shit” and he wore a “DRS” hat today in her memory so when I was side by side with Ken as we descended a very steep road at over 45 miles an hour battling serious crosswinds that almost blew us off the bike and heavy traffic, Ken turns to me and says….”Ava would have loved this!” Today’s ride was special because Ken was riding with us. It was a challenging ride at times with long descents. For the most part drivers were courteous, but we got coal rolled by some jackass, and he absolutely covered us in...
Read more

Day 9…Molly this is for you!

Image
Molly…Today we rode 90 miles in frigid temperatures and hellacious headwinds. We were all bundled up with everything we packed for the trip and most of us were still cold. The effective temperature at our riding pace was 11° for the first few hours and the American flags decorating the country roads were absolutely pinned because of the 25 mile an hour winds! We decided to ride as a group today so no one would suffer through stiff winds on their own. We recognize that the suffering we put ourselves through today and over the last week does not measure to the pain and suffering that you and your fellow pediatric cancer patients have faced. I am humbled by your resilience. I am not sure I could fight as long as hard as you did, if it had any resemblance to the suffering that we’ve managed through over the last week. Molly…I will tell you that outside of doing our best to ride in your honor, was when we visited Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis. We met with the doctors doing resea...
Read more

Day 6…This is for you Liv!

Image
For those that feel compelled to donate to the pediatric cancer research… https://charity.pledgeit.org/WOWV Liv…we rode 81 miles and ~2,500’ of elevation in your memory. I have to admit, we are all grateful for your day because while today’s ride was tough out of the gate…we faced rain, wet roads and cool temps with two big climbs of 13% and 14% right at the start. There was silver lining in that we were able to get 90% of the hard stuff out of the way over the first 30 miles and then it was like you guided us downhill for the last 50 miles and you were kind enough to blow on our backs which is allowed the group to finish together for the first time over the last six days. I’m sure you saw it from heaven, but riding through Amish country was beautiful and we got to see a handful of Amish folks leading their horse and buggies down the country roads. Their beards are something else and the land mines the horses left us created a bit of an obstacle course 🤣.  We had a wonderful lunch...
Read more