A Wesley Chapel man whose life was recently saved by a kidney transplant just months ago now faces a battle with cancer.

  • Joey Richman got a kidney donated by local MMA fighter Mike Miller
  • Richman now battling lymphoma caused by the transplant
  • Condition only found in 2 percent of transplant patients

Joey Richman thought he finally did it.

He beat Alport’s Syndrome. He beat the genetic condition that damaged his hearing and destroyed his kidneys. His mother’s social media campaign to find him a living donor to get him a new kidney worked. 

Richman was ready to start living life without dialysis, without complication, with his family. He was ready to go back to college, to become a surgeon and spend his life helping others. 

“He was still recovering from the transplant,” his mother Dana said. “And finally had reached a stage of acceptance, like it’s really in me, it’s really working, it’s really going to be OK.”

Joey received his kidney transplant from a living donor, local MMA fighter Mike Miller in April. Toward the end of June, Joey didn’t feel well, and his mother had him checked out. 

What they thought would be a routine hospital visit turned into much more.

“Not what I was expecting to be told when I showed up,” Richman said. “You walk into the room and there’s eight doctors there and you only know two. You know that something else is going on than what you were thinking.”

Richman has cancer. His diagnosis showed a type of lymphoma caused by the kidney transplant itself.

The condition is very rare. Only about two percent of transplant patients get it, and it’s usually years after the transplant, not months.

The diagnosis has been an emotionally rollercoaster for Joey. Now, his concern is fighting for his life — again. 

“Now you’ve got the chemo, you’ve got to worry about the cancer,” he said. “You’re also in the background worrying, ‘Am I going to lose the kidney?’ Because if you lose the kidney then I’ve got to do all that all over again. 

"It’s just, the emotions are constantly interchanging. One day you’re fine with it, and the next day it’s the worst day ever.”

Richman knows the kidney that saved his life was though the sacrifice of someone else. 

“You’re so thankful for this gift you got, to get someone’s organ and now it’s basically the organ doesn’t matter, if you lose it, it doesn’t matter because the alternative is, you’re going to die,” he said.

Yet Joey’s cancer isn’t the only hurdle this family has. His mother, Dana, is his sole provider and spends her days taking care of Joey, who has doctor’s appointments almost every day. 

She can’t work. The bills are piling up, and their home is in foreclosure.

“My son is terrified,” she said. “He knows that right now he’s dying and he’s terrified. Not only does he want his mother, but he needs me.”

Richman said he wouldn’t have the emotional strength to fight this battle if he didn’t have his family by his side.

“Without my family, I don’t think I’d be able to push nearly as hard as I am,” he said. 

Joey is undergoing three types of chemotherapy and has five more rounds left. The family has set up a GoFundMe account to help with expenses and a Facebook page to share his progress.

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