Raider Nation gives ‘Raider Ron’ Rickard hope for liver transplant

Ron Rickard has attended 215 consecutive Raiders games since moving to California in 1985, but the super-fan known as “Raider Ron” has had plenty of help to get there.

Rickard, who grew up in Kentucky and adopted the Raiders as his team as a 9-year-old, needs a liver transplant because of Hepatitis C. Time is running out on a fatal prognosis that in December gave him only months to live.

Without insurance, it’s been an uphill battle for the Garden Grove resident, one that Raiders fans have been willing to join. They’ve helped Rickard, 51, get to games, pay medical bills by holding an auction and, most importantly, given him hope by helping his search for compatible donors.

“I went from being on my death bed, to there’s hope. I’m telling everybody, ‘You ain’t getting rid of me. I’m going to be here for a while,’” he told Rachel Kim of KCBS-TV in Los Angeles.

The video above is Kim’s story about Rickard’s life-and-death battle.

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