As they began training for a 10-game 2017 season, members of the Vikings football team took on another important project: “adopting” a then 11-year-old boy from Brunswick who’d been undergoing treatment for T-cell leukemia since March.
For Ryan Cowan, the perks of being “adopted” by the Vikings football team included receiving lots of Hudson Valley Community College “SWAG” and Viking gear during a trip to campus early in the semester. And it’s pretty cool when football players visit with a cake — decorated like a football field with the college’s Viking logo — to help celebrate your birthday.
Shortly after that celebration in early October, Ryan was hospitalized at the Albany Medical Center with a life-threatening blood infection. He is continuing his recovery at Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital in Schenectady. Football team members visited Ryan at Albany Med. Plus, staff in the Center for Academic Engagement, Learning Assistance Center, New Student Orientation and Placement Testing recently donated and delivered an abundance of festively-wrapped gifts to the Cowan family home. Both Ryan and his sister, Ashley, were adopted out of foster care by Jim and Jennifer Cowan, and the entire family is hopeful that Ryan will be in outpatient care by Christmas.
Ryan is facing another two years of chemotherapy, which should resume in the near future. As medical and related expenses mount, many have stepped up to help and others may wish to do so at www.gofundme.com/ryans-journey-for-a-cure. Click here to read more about Ryan in a recent article in The Record.
Published: Mon, 11 Dec 2017 16:55:08 +0000 by d.mcgreevy