Business owner dealing with cancer diagnosis and shop break-ins

By Matt Evans

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    CLINTON, Missouri (KMBC) — “He’s always been an artist and musician,” Shy’rell Wynes says about her husband, Addison. “He’s always loved art.”

Which is why he fell in love with tattooing. That led him to start his own shop, the Stay Cold Tattoo company in Clinton, on Main Street just off the downtown square.

But earlier this year, everything changed. He started getting stomach pains in January that became unbearable.

“We went to several doctors, emergency rooms multiple times in Clinton,” said Shy’rell. “Everybody was just saying it was gastritis and take Prilosec and Mylanta. And it wasn’t helping at all. The pain was getting worse and worse.”

Finally, on one of those trips, doctors did a CT scan and discovered a mass. After a biopsy, they discovered cancer: Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma.

“Which is an aggressive cancer,” said Shy’rell. “It grows pretty quickly.”

While Addison was in the hospital in Kansas City getting treatment, Shy’rell found the tattoo shop broken into and equipment stolen along with several personal items.

“When I got there, the back door was wide open. My heart just sank because it had been broken into. A lot of his tattoo stuff was stolen,” she said.

A few weeks later, the shop was also vandalized when someone spray-painted several buildings in the area. And earlier this month, there was a leak, and the ceiling collapsed over the tattoo equipment that wasn’t stolen.

“It just felt like one thing after another,” Shy’rell said.

Since the cancer diagnosis earlier this year, people in Clinton have been contributing to an online fundraiser that’s raised about $7,000. Since Addison hasn’t been able to do any tattoos, it’s all the family and their three kids have been living on for months.

“It’s definitely been a struggle,” said Shy’rell. “We have no income. We haven’t since January.”

While money is certainly a concern, their main priority is getting Addison healthy again. He’s continuing chemotherapy, but the powerful drugs also affect his mental health.

“When we heard we were going to fight cancer, I was like, okay, we can do this,” Shy’rell said. “But this part of it, I don’t know what to do. We feel so alone.”

Shy’rell says she’ll keep fighting for her family and Addison until he can recover. His 36th birthday was Sunday, and although there may not seem like much to celebrate now, she’s hopeful there will be good news soon. If you’d like to help or learn more about the family, you can visit their GoFundMe site here: gofundme.com/f/z4fyvy-addison-wynes-and-family

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