When I announced the GoFundMe on Tuesday, I had high hopes. Whitney and I both have amazing families and friends, we thought that they would be with us on this journey. Our expectations were that we would get close to $20,000 - maybe if we were lucky $25,000. I honestly thought that I was going to be spending the last few weeks at home doing social media posts and calling everyone in my phone book, just dialing for dollars. In the start-up community, you are usually reliant on the “Three F’s” (Family, Friends, and Fools) to secure your initial seed capital. This fundraiser also relied on three F’s — Family, Friends, and The Fifth Column.
Family and Friends
Thank you. I know that the last few years have been difficult. Everyone can understand the concept on why being diagnosed with a disease like this sucks. Your life is just getting started, you have a young family, etc. — that people think about and understand. Most people do not think about what it is like to be a spouse, parent, in-law, brother, sister, daughter, son, aunt, uncle, cousin, or grandparent of someone being diagnosed. On top of you all picking up the slack and helping our family whenever we have needed it, I can only imagine what it must be like to be in your shoes. The emotional pain and distress of MS is not remotely isolated to the person afflicted with the disease. I know that there is nothing I could have done to have prevented my body from attacking itself, but I am sorry. I am sorry that you all have experienced pain, sadness, worry, and more because of this God-forsaken disease. I am also sorry that I underestimated you. I underestimated the way that you, your extended families, your friends, your extended families friends (and more) would be as generous as you were. To see our family join us not only financially, but in sharing our story with people in their life was amazing. The amount of love that we have felt from our family is unbelievable. Thank you, we love you, and let’s confine this disease to a chapter of our story.
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I always thought that if this was going to be remotely successful, our Friends and Family would be the foundation of that success — I guess that is one prediction that I was correct on. The one thing that I did not expect would be how this whole thing would make us feel. We have been so focused on other aspects of the transplant that are extremely emotional and scary, I don’t think either of us even considered what this would feel like. I have not cried this much in my entire life. Sitting with Whitney and going through the donor list is probably one of the most emotionally overwhelming things that we have ever done. Seeing the names of friends from middle school, high school, college, work, church, temple, kids and more was incredibly moving. I feel that just saying thank you is utterly inadequate. Whitney and I are so incredibly thankful that you are in our lives and we are completely overwhelmed with your generosity and support.
Thank you to every single one of you who shared a post, created an Instagram reel, retweeted the GoFundMe link, brought it to the office, or told anyone about this. The only reason why our family and friends were able to even find that this was happening is because of you. You are the reason why so many people who we have never met got involved and supported us. It may have been a simple click of a share or retweet button, but you are the reason that over 30,000 people saw a link to our GoFundMe.
If you are someone who Whitney and I have never met, read about our story, and felt compelled to support us financially and join us, thank you. Thank you for deciding that my mission and family was a worthy cause for you to support. I hope to one day meet you in person, thank you, and share a drink or meal to thank you. Until then, Whitney and I thank you and are so grateful for your support.
Comrades and Campaneros
For those of you who do not know about The Fifth Column Podcast, let me explain. The podcast, hosted by Kmele Foster, Michael Moynihan, and Matt Welch, is “your weekly rhetorical assault on the news cycle, the people who make it, and occasionally themselves.” This news and cultural criticism podcast became a weekly must listen while I was traveling for work in 2016. While I was getting diagnosed with MS, Whitney and I spent a lot of time in the car going to doctor’s appointments. I eventually conned her into letting me listen while we drive, she (thankfully) became an avid listener as well. In the past, I wrote into the podcast explaining how much Whitney and I appreciated them because they gave us something that we both enjoyed listening to and talking about. Fast forward a few years and we are blessed with so many new friends; not only the guys, but the large community they have created.
I had talked to several friends on Friday, and they had all asked if I thought that I would get to the $35,000 goal. I thought there was a chance — our family and friend networks had already given in ways that Whitney and I never expected. At around 1pm PST, Matt sent out his weekly Workin’ for the Weekend email which featured our story and the GoFundMe information. Whitney and I had our expectations completely blown away by our family and friends. I knew that there were friends associated with the podcast who were planning on donating, but here was just another place where our expectations were completely blown away. Within eight hours of that email going out, and eighty hours from beginning, we hit our goal of $35,000.
Matt, Kmele, and Michael — thank you so much for all of the support, encouragement, and love that you have shown towards Whitney and me. We are just random listeners to a podcast and your tweets, mentions during podcasts, and the WFTW email were really impactful. Thank you for taking the time and bandwidth to help us.
To Fifdom: There are some of you that I am lucky enough to be friends with and tons of you that I have never met before. Thank you for deciding to join me and my family in this battle. I cannot wait to one day buy you each a drink to say thank you. Until then, please keep the boys honest and keep supporting each other the way that you always have.
Thank You
This whole experience was surreal. For the past few years, it has felt like this small group of people (my family and close friends) were going through this journey with me. Ever since the pandemic and the diagnosis, it has definitely felt lonely. I have realized in the past week that I wasn’t able to see everyone around me. To know that 400 people, over half of which Whitney or I have never met, chose to join us is one of the most breathtaking things that has ever happened to me. I never thought that we would do this in 80 hours. You all are incredible people.
Next Steps
All of the pre-transplant tests and labs have been ordered and pre-approved by insurance. I fly out to Denver on Saturday morning and have four days of testing that needs to be done and then I will fly home for a few weeks. Right now, the plan is for my pre-transplant physical to be done in Denver on February 9th, and I will be admitted to the hospital to start the transplant process on February 16th. I will be documenting the entire testing and transplant process, so look for that to start in just a few days.
Much love and thank you for everything,
Aaron
Thanks for the update Aaron. We’re pulling for you. Much love to you and your family.