Community Rallies To Support CMU Athlete Fighting For His Life

The Grand Junction community is being asked to rally behind a Colorado Mesa University athlete who is fighting for his life.

Ryan Teixeira is a redshirt freshman for the CMU Maverick baseball team who had beaten a rare form of cancer last year when he had a 10-pound malignant tumor removed from his leg. But, Ryan has received a diagnosis of another form of cancer, which will require a bone marrow transplant. His brother, Alex, will be the donor.

Ryan is currently in a California hospital preparing for the transplant.

On October 27, the community will have multiple ways to support Ryan and his family at a Zumbathon Cancer Benefit and Bone Marrow Drive.

A Zumbathon is being held at Brownson Arena from 6:30PM-9:00PM. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the Hamilton Recreation Center at the Maverick center. T-shirts will be available for purchase as well as raffle tickets.

All the money raised will go to Ryan and his family.

A free way to help is to come to the event and sign up to be a bone marrow donor. The first test is a swab of the mouth. Donors must be generally healthy and between ages of 18 and 44.

According to Be the Match.org, 14,000 people are currently awaiting bone marrow transplants.