PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Rick and Robin Williams have been living in an RV outside of Richmond since February — not by choice.
“It’s a tremendous burden, but that’s what you have to do if you want to live,” Rick Williams said.
He has myelofibrosis, an uncommon blood cancer, and in order to get the stem cell transplant and treatment he needs, the pastor of CrossLife Church in Portsmouth and his wife had to leave their Suffolk home and move closer to VCU Medical Center.
“You’ve got to live within 30 minutes of the hospital. You have a two-hour window, if you get sick, a flu, a fever, anything. You got to get to the hospital,” he said.
Doctors also require that patients have a full-time caretaker, which means neither Rick nor Robin have worked in more than a year.
“So if you don’t have money saved up or people helping you eventually the finances run out,” he said.
This is where a game of golf and the AES Cancer Foundation came to help.
“I know firsthand what they’re going through. I know how much of a stress it can be,” said Tripp Seed.