Ken Howell is a Vietnam Veteran who served 20 years in the Marine Corps. Ken was deployed overseas twice where he was stationed aboard the Naval Vessel USS Tripoli as aircrew and door gunner. During training for this assignment at Camp Lejeune, Ken was exposed to contaminated drinking water. This toxic exposure led to leukemia and his chemotherapy treatments caused irreversible kidney disease.

For the past four years, Ken has traveled to the San Diego VA to undergo 4-6 hours, three times a week, of life-saving hemodialysis treatments. This is not the retirement that Ken and his wife of 22 years, Maria, had planned.