This probably won’t mean much to many of you, as not everyone here is as obsessed with Led Zeppelin as I am…

My journey into Zepdom started with Planet Zeppelin, but it’s been Royal Orleans that’s really helped me dig deeper then I ever could have anywhere else.

The owner of the forum is Jason Peterson, known there as Presence.

He’s been battling Lymphona for a long time. He beat it once before, but now it’s back… and it’s winning. Unfortunately, the link to the update is set to members only, but the breakdown is that his lungs are badly injured and he can barely breathe. He’s in critical care on a bi-pap machine, but as his oxygen needs increase, this becomes less and less helpful.

There may be one option left, and that’s stem cell therapy. His family set up a Go Fund Me to ask for donations to help. It’s already past it’s goal, but it’s always good for them to get even more, because with more money they can do even more to fight back.

Royal Orleans is an amazing place for Led Zeppelin fans and collectors. Some would call the place elitist, but that reputation helps to maintain a site that is invaluable as a resource for Zeppelin’s unofficial music, stories from the road (roadies like to talk about their experiences with Led Zeppelin and the members solo tours on the road, there), and so on. For me, it’s like a little Led Zeppelin Garden of Eden.

I would really love if Jason survives, but if he doesn’t, it will be a sad day for Led Zeppelin fans around the world. Hopefully Royal Orleans will live on without him, but it certainly won’t be the same.

Jason, you’re in my thoughts. I only ever knew you as Presence, and you only ever knew me as that annoying jimmyRRpage, who was either all Gimme Gimme or threw threads about a live show wildly off topic. But you were there, at the forum, through the good times and the bad times, when Led Zeppelin reunited in 2007 and the levees broke…

Give that cancer shit no quarter, Jason. We’ll help where we can, and be here for you when you get back.