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Sometimes they would wake me up and still be there in the morning but only like 2 a month. About a month ago I looped out on a flip and grabbed my brakes and that allowed me to not hit to hard but I landed straight on my tailbone. I didn’t hit my head or back but it messed up my neck. Thanks to Dan Sieg, I found a sweet chiropractor and he mentioned from hitting my tailbone that it messed up some disks in my neck and back (wave effect or something ha). I figured my headaches were from that, because he said some of the nerves in my neck could be causing my headaches. About 2 weeks ago I fell on a flare whip and landed on my entire left side slamming my head pretty good. I wasn’t sure if I hit my head because I wasn’t knocked out or anything. When I asked my friends if I had hit my head they said, “yeah for sure.” Before that I had been getting headaches after I rode for a few weeks and my vision had been getting real blurry. I never had a problem with my vision and never had glasses or contacts so that’s when I knew something had to be wrong. After all this, my headaches had gone from occurring only after riding, to all of the time. I scheduled an MRI to get checked out because I had been getting sick of having headaches for so long and wanted to see what was going on. I think that one slam could have saved my life.

It’s common many professional BMX athletes do not have medical insurance. Do you? If not, does that ever impact your decisions to possibly delay or not seek medical care?
JP: Yes, I am really happy I have health insurance. I don’t like going to the doctor or hospital though unless it’s an emergency to where I cant take it. I actually just got it about a year ago thanks to Jeff Suarez. Love that guy haha.

What can you tell us about your condition?
JP: I don’t really know much other than there is a brain tumor and they won’t know much until they take it out. The doctors don’t think its cancerous but are not 100% sure. The neurosurgeons said it should be pretty easy to take out because of the fact that it’s growing from outside my brain into the brain, which is causing swelling (the cause me of my headaches and blurred or doubled vision). My headaches have gone away since I have been on the steroids for the swelling but my vision is still messed up. The doctor said depending on how my body reacts to the surgery, I can be in the hospital from 2-5 days. Once I’m home I will be off my bike for about 2 months. I was so surprised when he said that because I was thinking 6 months to a year. My doctor said I obviously won’t be at 100% and will have to work hard to get back to where I am now.

How has the BMX community offered support to you and your family during the past week?
JP: Well Kelly Bolton and Leigh Ramsdell came up with an idea for ARF to make a sticker that says "Resist/Recovery/Ride" for everyone at Jomo to show support. I have already seen some pictures of people putting them on! So psyched!

ARF has recently gotten involved in assisting you. What kinds of things has ARF done so far and how do they plan on helping in the future?
JP: Yeah, they are so awesome. They flew my parents out to be with me and are flying them back as well. I can’t thank them enough! I am not sure what they will be doing in the future, but flying my parents out was the best.

I’m sure you never thought you would need help from ARF but now that you are in a time of need, how has it been to work with Aaron and the ARF organization?
JP: Yeah, I mean I have always donated the 5% of my earnings from Dew Tour when they started that and always wear a black "support the ARF" rubber bracelet but I never thought I’d be the one in need. It was hard for me to understand they would help me because this isn’t a BMX related accident. Trish Bare Grounds had to tell my Mom about them and help me understand. I felt bad because like Stephen and Mikey, they had BMX related accidents. This isn’t from BMX, it just happened. I guess I know now that ARF is here for anyone in need that rides, skates, MTX, whatever. ARF is such a great organization and I can’t thank them enough.

When can we expect to see you back on your bike and what's the first trick you want to do?
JP: Well if all goes well, no more then about 10 weeks from now so let’s hope for the best! I just wanna throw the bars haha! Love barspins and I will be psyched when I can throw em ha. I just wanna thank everyone for the support and prayers! I can’t thank you enough! Mom, Dad, Valdene, Charlotte Boxley, Trish Bare Grounds, ARF, Brandon Christie, Leigh Ramsdell, Kelly Bolton, Nick Digeroloma, Josh Boatright, Chris Hughes, Ryan Taylor, Ryan Guettler, Ondra Slez, Eastern Bikes, Bern Helmets, Staff Mailorder, Vans shoes and all my friends I’m forgetting to mention. If it weren’t for you guys, I wouldn’t be able to deal with this. Thanks so much ARF for helping! Support ARF if you don’t already because you never know when you will need their help.




I spoke to Aaron Cooke, executive director of the Athlete Recovery Fund to find out a little bit more about ARF and how exactly they were able to provide assistance to Josh Perry during this difficult time. ARF is probably one of the best organizations in action sports today and the service they provide is truly amazing.

How did ARF get started and what are the goals of the organization?
AC: When Stephen Murray was injured I took over his fundraising effort. It was amazing to me to find out how much cost he was left with when it came to rehab, home healthcare equipment, nursing care and more. That caused me to start ARF so that guys in the future would have a support system before they got injured.

Who is eligible to receive assistance from ARF and what sorts of assistance do you provide?
AC: ARF supports professionals in BMX, FMX and Skateboarding. Just in 2010 we have picked up Snowboarding but have yet to achieve real meaningful fundraising. We really need to get the word out in that sport. We classify a professional as someone who is getting paid in their sport. We are not only here to support contest guys but also street, video, and other guys as well.

Tell me a little about the athletes you have helped?
AC: The list of guys we have helped is getting pretty long. As more people find out about what we do there is a more apparent need for our benefits. ARF has helped in many different ways. We have paid for rehab at facilities where insurance did not cover, air ambulance rides, hotels and flights for family members to be with an injured athlete, and we have settles tons of bills for thousands less than the original billed amount. ARF can call these bill collectors and typically settle debt for immediate payment. If an athlete can show financial need by having a low income we can help in this way as well.

Who provides funding to ARF and have you been able to expand your corporate and private donations in the last three years?
AC: As far as collecting donations we have only been around since Feb 2008. We are constantly growing our list of supporters. Ideally we get initial supporters to come back and give on an annual basis. We are constantly looking for new and creative ways to market to potential corporate donors. One of last year’s biggest success stories was working with Ball Park Franks who donated $100,000 USD for the viral video project we did. I am currently talking with Ball Park to come up with something as good for 2010. One big way companies can get involved is by using the insurance agent that we use for athletes to set up their company insurance needs. When a company does this there are a percentage of commissions that get donated back to ARF creating a residual income. The company Solomon Insurance Group (SIG) has been putting together amazing packages that are much better than what most companies currently have and best of all they are showing companies how to insure their athletes as well!

What kinds of things has ARF been able to provide to Josh Perry and his family during this difficult time?
AC: The first thing we did was contact Josh's mother and let her know that we were here to help and we would be willing to fly her out to Greenville so she could be with her son. I explained that when the time comes for rehab, therapy and bills, we will be talking again. I sent her to www.athleterecoveryfund.com so she could learn a little more about what we have done in the past as well.

What are your plans/goals for 2010?
AC: One of our biggest goals that started in 2009 was to complete the custom van for Stephen Murray. After finally delivering that in March we still have some media to do. Tuesday I will be in the FUEL TV studios shooting an episode of Daily Habit with Cory Nastazio, Fabrizio Santos (Skate) and Jimmy Fitzpatrick (FMX). We are doing the wrap up of the Stephen Murray Project and there is a lot of never before seen footage that will be in the episode. It should air on FUEL TV April 20 so check your local listings and set your DVR.

Other than that I am hoping to expand the list of contributors and raise as much money as possible. I am working hard on a big fundraiser around X Games and another one at the final stop of the Dew Tour that would be really fun and raise a lot of money for ARF. Expanding the Board of Directors is something that we will definitely be focused on as well.

Thanks to all our supporters, the athletes, the media and the public for helping us enjoy such a great success. We are a lot better off than we were before Stephen Murray's injury but still need to accomplish so much more.

Best wishes to Josh Perry this week as he undergoes his surgery and a collective thanks from riders, fans and families to ARF for the incredible things they are doing to support the athletes.

By Susan Linerode