{"id":749930,"date":"2026-06-20T17:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T17:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/749930\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T17:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T17:45:12","slug":"cfl-support-goes-on-for-miles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/749930\/","title":{"rendered":"CFL Support Goes On For Miles"},"content":{"rendered":"

The CFL community is coming together to take care of one of its own.<\/p>\n

No parent wants to see their child sick or in extreme pain but, unfortunately, that has been the reality for Stampeders defensive backs coach Barron Miles<\/a> and his wife Jennifer. Their daughter Ava has Gastroparesis and Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome (MALS).<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Gastroparesis the stomach becomes paralyzed so when she eats, it doesn\u2019t move food through and that causes a lot of nausea and vomiting,\u201d informed Jennifer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMALS is where the ligament above the diaphragm is pressing against the celiac artery, and it causes celiac compression and slow blood flow to the digestive organs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt causes a lot of pain even when she breathes. She takes really shallow breaths because it is so painful.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best way to describe her daily condition is if you think about how miserable you feel when you have the stomach flu or food poisoning, and she has had that feeling every single day for the last six years. So, for her, that\u2019s the hardest thing. It\u2019s just not a whole lot of quality of life for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six years ago, when Ava was around 16 years old, she developed sudden vomiting and lost 30 pounds within a month. After trying a few different treatment options, medications and surgeries that didn\u2019t work, doctors put in a gastric pacemaker which sends electrical pulses to remind the stomach to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat did okay for about a year and then she got really sick again and she was in the hospital for about seven months,\u201d said Jennifer. \u201cThat\u2019s where things really became a nightmare for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Miles family was informed that their doctors in Arizona had done all they could and that Ava would need to go to the Cleveland Clinic for a higher level of care.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe needed an air ambulance to get there because she was battling sepsis, low potassium, malnutrition, and unstable heart rate. She was very, very sick,\u201d said Jennifer. \u201cUnited Healthcare denied the air ambulance and all of the care because it was out of state, so it was out of network.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Upon hearing the Miles family have been denied insurance to cover Ava\u2019s necessary treatment, Wally Buono and his wife Sande have set up a GoFundMe campaign to help raise funds to get Ava the care she needs. The goal is to raise $402,000 USD to cover evaluations, surgery and post-operative hospitalization.<\/p>\n

Those living in Canada and the U.S. can donate.<\/p>\n

DONATE HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt means absolutely everything,\u201d said Jennifer. \u201cI don\u2019t think I have words big enough to express how much it means.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barron and Jennifer first met the Buono\u2019s at the 1998 Grey Cup when Barron was nominated for CFL Rookie of the Year as a member of the Montreal Alouettes, and Wally was coaching the Stampeders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWally and Sande were introduced during a Christian athlete\u2019s breakfast, and they brought their kids out on stage. We were really impressed with them, the kind of parents they are and how they made football a family affair,\u201d said Jennifer. \u201cSo, we\u2019ve always looked up to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen in free agency, Barron went to BC to play for Wally and we developed a close relationship with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are touched and humbled by their kindness. We have such great respect for them. It\u2019s incredibly moving to know the efforts they have made for our family. Their compassion and generosity will make a huge difference for Ava.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So far, the GoFundMe campaign has raised $57,990 and counting, including donations from members of the Stampeders and all over the CFL community.<\/p>\n

Orlondo Steinauer, Jeremy O\u2019Day and John Hufnagel are just some of many across the league wanting to help the Miles family.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur kids were born into the CFL. Even as babies, they were going to the games,\u201d said Jennifer. \u201cWe have moved around Canada and they have been in every stadium, looked forward to game day and Grey Cup week, and would go watch Barron practice, whether he was a player or a coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up, all of the players were their football uncles, so, having the support of the CFL community, our football family, is extremely meaningful to our entire family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After having a stomach tube removed because it was causing too many complications, Ava is now fed through Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN), a method of delivering liquid nutrition that bypasses the digestive tract.<\/p>\n

Jennifer also quit working to care for Ava full-time. The Miles family also has doctors and nurses who come to their home due to Ava\u2019s condition and to prevent sepsis.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing around hospital germs is a risk because her condition makes her highly susceptible to infection so they try to do as much as they can at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Ava\u2019s life is anything but normal, the family does their best to try.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough, but Ava really wanted to keep life as normal as possible,\u201d said Jennifer. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t want to be viewed as sick or be a burden. Of course that\u2019s not how we view it, but we respect her perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s helpful to maintain a sense of normalcy in order to create some stability. So, with (our other children) Raven and Barron Jr., we encourage them to keep chasing their dreams and for Barron to continue coaching because that\u2019s encouraging to Ava. We can keep watching the CFL games and have something to look forward to each week.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously there were family discussions (about him still coaching) because it is a difficult situation,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s harder on Barron to be so far away and having to worry every day if he\u2019s going to get a phone call that something awful happened to Ava. I know that weighs on him and it\u2019s also challenging for him to be away when I\u2019m taking care of a lot of it here on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the family is continuing to share Ava\u2019s story and spread awareness about her conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody sharing Ava\u2019s story could truly make a life changing difference to her,\u201d said Jennifer. \u201cIf a doctor or a medical professional happens to see this story and feel they can help her or somebody reaches out and gives us advice, anything could happen. That\u2019s why we\u2019re trying to get her story in front of as many people as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re absolutely desperate to help her,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s awful as a parent to see your child struggling and suffering and you can\u2019t fix it for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very humbling and embarrassing to have to ask for help. So, witnessing so many generous and compassionate people willing to support our family is not only helpful but comforting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to express how grateful we are to the Stampeders organization for how supportive they\u2019ve been, as well as the CFL community, the fans, and the staff of the teams that Barron\u2019s been on previously. We are blown away at the response and the support we\u2019ve received.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The CFL community is coming together to take care of one of its own. No parent wants to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-749930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}