Nearly 20 local Malibu designers donate generous portions of sale proceeds to help pay medical expenses
Last Wednesday morning, the Calamigos Beach Club (formerly the Beau Rivage restaurant) was the scene of the best of the Malibu community in action — a coming together of nearly 20 local designers to sell their creations to the public and donate a generous portion of the proceeds to “warrior” Lyon Herron for medical expenses.
“Stop by to shop, say hello, support all your favorite local designers, and explore new ones: clothing, home accessories, jewelry, and more,” the invitation read. And support they did — the parking lot was completely full, and the venue was packed with eager shoppers and vendors.
The fundraising event was organized by local dynamic duo Krishna Jarrett and Sasha Rondell . The two had worked together on other local fundraisers previously, for Malibu High School and Malibu Elementary, and had also done a previous fundraiser for Herron five or six years ago.
“When I read the Malibu Times article a couple months ago about Lyon’s story being written into an episode of ‘The Good Doctor,’ we decided to do another fundraiser for him,” Krishna said in a phone interview. “Sasha knows the Calamigos Beach Club owners, and they gave us the space for free. All the designers are Malibu-based and it’s like a tribe. After we sent out the call on social media, before we knew it, we had to turn vendors away, because there was only room for so many.”
“I have all those contacts, and Sasha and I love working together,” Krishna continued. “We’ve been friends for over 15 years and we love bringing people together. We’re looking to do another fundraiser for Lyon soon, later in the day at a different venue, when more people might have the opportunity to come and support him.”
Herron has suffered from the rare disease Gardner Syndrome for most of his life. The genetically inherited condition puts him at high risk of developing colorectal cancer and ongoing desmoid tumors. There’s no cure, but the symptoms can be managed.
Lyon, a Malibu native, was first diagnosed with the disease at the young age of 4. He later developedstage 3 colon cancer and was treated with a variety of conventional and alternative treatment methods.
He’s had dozens of surgeries, including the removal of a six-pound tumor, stem cell therapy, immunotherapy, and chemotherapy.
Beginning in November 2019, Lyon spent 485 days at Cedars Sinai Hospital dealing with an intestinal fistula (hole) and inter-abdominal abscesses. Aggressive fast-growing desmoid tumors wrapped around his small intestine and mesenteric artery; and he developed sepsis, edema, and low hemoglobin.
In January 2022, during a procedure to put a new clamp on the fistula, he aspirated in post-op and his lungs nearly filled with fluids. He was placed in a medically induced coma and put on life support. The doctors gave him a 20 percent chance of waking up, but he came around after a week and is still recovering.
Both Lyon and his mother, Barbie Herron Conkling, were at the Calamigos Beach Club event circulating.
She said Lyon had had a “rough morning” that day, but still managed to make it there. She explained that the money raised would go towards all kinds of ongoing medical expenses: the annual medical insurance deductible, co-pays, twice-weekly home health visits, medical supplies needed at the house, hospitalizations, etc.
“It’s been rough,” she admitted. “Once every six weeks, we’re in the hospital. He has fistulas (holes) in his intestines requiring abdominal drains, or they’ll go septic. He has labs done twice a week, and he needs TPN (total parenteral nutrition — a special food formula given intravenously).
“It’s ongoing maintenance,” Barbie explained, “with internal abscesses and a tumor. It’s like whack-a-mole — something is always popping up.”
She and Lyon have both shown incredible resilience and positivity throughout.
“We keep showing up for life — the beauty, joy, love and laughter – much of it coming from the community,” Barbie said. “Malibu is such a special place.”
At the time of this writing, the vendors from the fundraiser were still in the process of sending their contributions in to Lyon’s GoFundMe page, but the organizers estimated they had probably raised between $4,000 and $5,000. Some individuals went directly to GoFundMe to make donations:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-lyon-recover. To purchase one of Lyon’s “Heaven Ain’t Ready” beanies or T-shirts, go to https://lyandco.la/collections/heaven-aint-ready