Benefit for Lee Bender, former pro-skateboarder with Multiple Sclerosis

Lee Bender back on a skateboard. Hell yeah. Photo by Greg Andrews

Some of you may have watched the video I made about Lee Bender as part of my “Real Faces of Health Care” series (more installments soon, I promise). Lee was a pro skateboarder for years before being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2007. Since then, because of the way MS has affected his sense of balance, he’s been unable to do the thing he loved most for more than 20 years.

Lee also faces a mountain of debt because of the outrageous cost associated with getting treatment. Relatively speaking, his insurance is pretty good: it covers 80% of the cost of his monthly medication. But that medication costs $10,000 a month. Which means that even thought his insurer covers the lion’s share, Lee goes into debt an0ther $2,000 each month. That’s on top of his premium –  a premium that keeps going up.

On Halloween Day, a bunch of Lee’s buddies at Rise Skateboard Shop threw a benefit to help ease a bit of Lee’s financial burden. There were costumes, a motorcycle ride, a barbecue, skate demos and a skateboard lap race. And, for a moment, Lee got back on a skateboard.

By all accounts, the event was a success. I find it extremely unfortunate that we have to have these kinds of benefits to help a really great guy feel normal — a guy who plays by the rules, pays for insurance and doesn’t complain. But it warms my heart to see people coming together like this for a friend. Hats off to Rick Eusey, Ryan Davis and co.  for working their asses off to put this thing together.

Check out more of Greg Andrews’ photos of the event, or contact Rise Skateboard Shop to make donations, here. (Here for Greg’s photo stream.) Go here to check out Lee’s blog: more of Greg’s photos, lots stuff about custom motorcycles — Lee’s abiding passion since he had to give up skating.

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, check out the video about Lee’s story, below: