Sydney song request

Speightsman

Hi there, I don’t normally do this. My wife, Colleen, and one of her oldest friends, dating back since primary (i.e. elementary) school, Vanessa (Ness), and me are seeing your concert in Sydney tomorrow.  They are huge fans, who have followed Pearl Jam since the very beginning.  They have both had a number of challenges over the past few years. Ness tragically lost her husband to cancer more than 10 years ago, and has had to raise their two children by herself, which has been further complicated by her own serious cancer challenges over the past few years.  Coll has also had an uphill health battle, with (amongst others) two poorly understood (much like EB), autoimmune and genetic illnesses, called Ehlers-Danlos and Hereditary Alpha Tryptasemia (HAT) respectively, which is destroying the quality of her life at an accelerating rate.  She has had 20+ surgeries over the years to repair tendons, ligaments and discs that have broken or deteriorated for no apparent reason, including having two spinal fusions and five foot reconstructions amongst others.  The next op will be a big one, replacing both of her jaw joints, which have disintegrated and are causing her immense & constant pain, as well as exacerbating the frequency and magnitude of her longstanding migraine condition.  Coll’s severe HATs means that she is allergic to many of the medications that could have alleviated some of her symptoms. Coll’s HATs is also increasing the number of food and other everyday things that she is becoming more and more allergic to as well, which is only making it harder for her every day.  Its been tough enough over the past decade and a half, with Coll having lost her sister to Breast cancer some 14 years ago, who had five children, one of whom has Downs Syndrome. Too top things off, I had an unfortunate reaction to the Pfizer Covid vaccine back in Oct21, which left me with chronic fatigue, as well loss of speech, cognitive function and memory (not to mention a fair bit of pain at times).  Whilst thankfully I have improved materially since then, there remains the odd setback, which can take from a few days to a few months to recover, whilst experiencing the original symptoms.  This injury unfortunately cost me my job and my career, with my prospects for a full recovery remaining pretty low at this time. So its been pretty tough.  

I know this has been a very long and convoluted story, and all three of us remain very thankful for the health, friends and family that we do have, and we are also extremely aware that there are plenty of people out there in a far worse position than us (especially all those millions of people living in all the war zones around the world, like the Sudan, Burma, Ukraine, Russia, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine, who all live in constant fear for their lives and well-being every minute of every day), but we have certainly had our own challenges, as I’m sure you can appreciate.

I saw that last night you played both Coll and Ness’ favourite Pearl Jam songs, being “Indifference” and “Black” respectively; so whilst the chances of you playing both of these amazing songs again on Saturday is probably pretty remote, I just thought I’d very politely ask anyway, just on the off-chance; as I know it would be a huge pick up for them both, who, like me, live with a personal mantra that “music is medicine”, as it gives us real relief from both the pain and the consequences of the conditions we deal with on a day to day basis.

We are very much looking forward to your show on Saturday, as it is amazing!  Australia (& NZ) just loves you guys!

Cheerz

Tone      

Micheyb21

Bump! Sincerest thoughts and well wishes to you all. I hope you all enjoy the show tonight