Stampeders Coach Rallies Football Community to Help Sick Daughter

Calgary Stampeders defensive backs coach Barron Miles and his family are battling a "nightmare" health situation with their daughter Ava, who has been largely confined to a bed for more than five years with serious medical conditions.

Ava, now in her early 20s, has gastroparesis — a rare condition in which stomach muscles don't move food as they should — and median arcuate ligament syndrome (MALS), a rare disorder causing persistent pain, nausea, and vomiting. "She's in pain daily," Miles' wife Jennifer said. "MALS causes a lot of pain when Ava breathes, so especially when she exhales, it causes a lot of pain in that area by the diaphragm."

Once an active athlete, Ava now requires feeding and IV tubes regularly attached to her. "The hardest thing is just watching your child suffer and you can't fix it," Jennifer said. She has had to quit working to provide full-time care, and the family is fighting with insurance companies — what she describes as "a full-time job."

The football community, spearheaded by Wally and Sande Buono (Miles' former coach with the Lions and his wife), has rallied to help. A GoFundMe page set up to support the family toward life-saving care in Cleveland had raised $70,000 of a $402,000 goal as of Friday. "Especially since Wally and Sande Buono have literally been angels to us," Jennifer said. "We've seen so much generosity and kindness."

Miles remains focused on his coaching role with the Stampeders (0-2), who face the BC Lions (0-2) on Saturday at the Apple Bowl in Kelowna. "It is really hard for him to be away from home," Jennifer said. But the family decided together that Barron should continue working.