Hi, 

My name is Sarah and I'm trying to raise money to help my big brother, Geoffrey. 

My entire life, Geoffrey has been an amazing athlete; he's someone who could out run, out climb and out catch anyone. My first memory is sitting on the bleachers when I was three watching his baseball games; to be honest I mostly liked going for the hot dogs, but I still remember watching him run around the bases in a flash of white, blue and dust.  

As I grew up, Geoffrey was someone I always looked up to -- he was the amazing skateboarding ninja, a rock climber, adventurer, surfer, accomplished chef and snowboarder. When I was 13, he was living and snowboarding full time in Salt Lake City, Utah. One of my happiest memories was watching him win a snowboarding competition - long before snowboarding was an Olympic sport. He was a natural on the snow, able to move across, around and over it like a bird gliding over the currents. 

Now, Geoffrey has trouble walking. He's developed avascular necrosis - or bone death - in both of his ankles. I didn't know what that meant either when he first told me. What it does mean is that he's in constant pain  and has trouble walking.  I do know that it's very rare to develop this in the ankles, especially in people as young as he is, and that it's very difficult to fix. 

After seeing many doctors and specialists over the past two years, he's finally going to be able to have surgery at the  San Francisco Orthopedic Surgery Center in July. They've told him he'll have to have  arthroscopic surgery on each ankle -- which means going into the joint and scraping away the damage and fixing the bone, ligament and cartilage as they go along. In some ways Geoffrey is lucky; if the surgery goes well, then he'll be able to walk again without having to have his ankle joints replaced. 

To make this happen my mom, Elizabeth Worley, and Geoffrey have been looking for a way to make sure Geoffery can get the surgery and support he needs to walk again. His insurance will cover most of the surgery cost itself, but he'll need to have intensive rehab and physical therapy to help him heal and be able to walk again -- and it could take between six and eight months for both ankles to heal.  And this is where we need your help. 

For an additional $25,000, we can cover everything his insurance won't and make sure he has the support he needs to heal. This mean Geoffrey will be able to walk again, be able to work again, and, while his snowboarding days are behind him, with your help he'll be able to keep up with his amazing dog, Max.