The viral fan is elevating cash — up to now, greater than $7,000 in simply 4 days — for a uncommon type of mind most cancers … and virtually definitely getting a Gritty tattoo within the course of.
Rob Dunphy, his Philly tattoos, and a few pals finally week’s Eagles-Packers sport. (Photograph offered by Rob Dunphy)
The final a number of days have been fairly a visit for Rob Dunphy. On Thursday morning, no one knew who the 26-year-old Bridesburg dad was. However by Thursday evening, anyone listening to the thrilling Eagles-Packers sport in Inexperienced Bay knew Dunphy — or at the least his naked, Philly-tattooed torso — after images of him from the game went viral.
So what occurs subsequent?
Effectively, in between shirtless photo ops with the Phillies Phanatic at Residents Financial institution Park on Sunday and a bizarre interaction with Mike Jerrick on Fox 29 on Monday morning, Dunphy is making an attempt to lift cash for a uncommon type of pediatric most cancers.
Dunphy and his good friend arrange a Facebook fundraiser on Friday with the purpose of scoring at the least $10,000 for Storm the Heavens, a registered charity in Pennsylvania that raises cash for analysis into Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a very brutal type of childhood most cancers.
“We didn’t even know Rob earlier than he reached out to us the opposite day by mutual pals,” says Storm the Heavens founder Mina Carroll, whose daughter Philomena Stendaro died from DIPG in 2017 on the age of eight, lower than a 12 months after her analysis.
Philomena Stendaro
“That is probably the most uniformly deadly type of mind most cancers, and it impacts principally youngsters underneath the age of 11. The five-year survival charge? Lower than one %. And but nothing modifications. Neil Armstrong’s daughter died of DIPG in 1962 and Philomena in 2017, they usually have been each principally supplied the identical therapy choices.”
How uncommon is DIPG? It relies on who you ask.
“Effectively, individuals will say it’s very uncommon,” Carroll, a lifelong Port Richmond resident, instructed us. “However yearly, near 400 youngsters are recognized in america alone. Is that uncommon? I don’t assume that’s uncommon. I don’t assume you may say one little one per day is uncommon.”
On Sunday evening, the fundraiser had surpassed $6,000, and by Monday afternoon, the tally was greater than $7,000 and counting, with near 300 donors.
If the fundraiser meets its purpose of $10,000, which appears probably at this level, Dunphy’s tattoo artist, Mike Nemo at 215 Inkwell, has agreed to complete Dunphy’s chest tattoos, a few of that are at present easy outlines. Bonus: The tattoo artist is giving him a Gritty tattoo.
“I’m simply glad that we discovered a solution to make one thing good come out of all this,” says Dunphy. “I don’t actually care about that tattoos. Effectively, I do. However you recognize what I imply.”
