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Remembering Richard "Spike" Redding

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SpikeRichard Ralph Redding, affectionately known as “Spike”, passed away on March 29th, 2022. He was born on March 4, 1946 in at Fort Lewis, Washington, and passed at his home in Cameron Park, California. He lived a long fulfilling life and accumulated a massive number of friends along the way. He is survived by his wife, Nancy, 2 sons, Matthew and Joshua, sister Ronie Dove (Tom), ex-wife Margaret Bergantz-Redding and many other extended family members, not to mention his dogs, Pringle, Lulu, and Jax.

Spike served a total of 14 years in the army, but his military training in nuclear power led to his career employment at SMUD as a nuclear technical instructor for 24 years.

Spike was a member of numerous organizations, including a couple of motorcycle chapters, a bocce ball league, a member of the Order of Real-Bearded Santas, the Folsom Zoo Sanctuary docents, and was a volunteer with the Placerville CHP and was also previously a docent at the Sacramento State Capitol. He served as a founding board member of the NorCal CarciNET Community since our inception in 2007, helping many others come to terms with a NET Carcinoid diagnosis. One of his many hobbies included jewelry making and he took and helped to teach some classes at Folsom Lake College.

He also enjoyed traveling, and he and Nancy were able to enjoy numerous trips. Nancy swore he was trying to off her, with their many extreme vacations. They survived diving with manta rays, bicycling down Mount Haleakala in Maui, Hawaii, scuba diving, and also river rafting for 4 days on the Rogue River, just to name a few of their daring adventures. They enjoyed many years of motorcycling and camping cross country in their small teardrop trailer. They also loved their many animal pets and, at one time, had only pot-bellied pigs, poodles and parrots.

A memorial service with military honors will be held on April 23rd at 11:00 at Green Valley Mortuary 3004 Alexandrite Drive in Rescue, California. Streaming will also be available online. Interment will follow at the Dixon Veteran’s Cemetery at a later date.

Please enjoy this video of Spike at Late Night with NETS

Spike starts at 19 min in.

To donate on behalf of Spike's memory, click here


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Josh Mailman
Josh Mailman
  1. about 3 months ago
  2. #15
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

Trying to put Spike’s contribution to the NET Community in Northern California and the country in a few minutes would be a hard task as in his kind, gentle yet humorous way he touched thousands maybe tens of thousands.
In 2007 along with several...

Trying to put Spike’s contribution to the NET Community in Northern California and the country in a few minutes would be a hard task as in his kind, gentle yet humorous way he touched thousands maybe tens of thousands.
In 2007 along with several others in the Sacramento and the bay area formed the NorCal CarciNET Support Group which met every 2 months at the Cancer Support Community in Walnut Creek. This group emphasized learning about this rare disease by going to educational meetings around the country and providing speakers locally to educate those who were not able to travel.
In the beginning, the group was small with 15-30 people meeting every few months but by 2011 it had grown to 30-40 people per meeting. Spike was always one of the members who would greet people at the start of each meeting and when introductions were made those newly diagnosed were always given hope by Spike telling his story of longevity with NETs.
Spike was not only willing to share his story with those in the bay area but willing to share his story on a national level. In the day before we streamed everything, Spike was featured in a DVD that was sent to patients around the country who were newly diagnosed to hear his story on longevity with NETs and to give them that the drugs available were prolonging the quantity and quality of life and that new discoveries would continue to happen.
2011 was also a year that NorCal CarciNET Support group faced a fork in the road – either incorporate as a nonprofit or find another home as Cancer Support Community would no longer support a “community group”.
Spike stepped up and became a founding board member of NorCal CarciNET Community, along with Matt, Chris, Geneva, and Josh a nonprofit was born.
With that it grew – having larger meetings (50 people on average) and holding annual meetings that pre-pandemic attracted over 400 people with speakers from around the world.
Spike with Nancy at his side would greet newcomers with his laugh and humor and let them know there was life after diagnosis.
NorCal CarciNET’s last in-person meeting in January 2020 was dedicated to Spike’s announcement that he was entering palliative/hospice care and that while he would still be doing dialysis to maintain his kidney function he was foregoing active treatment for his NET disease.
While many things slowed down during the pandemic, Spike’s commitment to his community did not. Instead of monthly meetings, our group was meeting up to three times a week virtually before settling on twice a week in this new virtual world and Spike was there for virtually all of them.
It was the same Spike in a different format, putting people at ease, making people laugh showing that one could live for an extended period of time with NETs and still enjoy life. In this virtual world, we were also treated with virtual backgrounds of Spike and Nancy’s travels.
While entering Hospice in March was challenging for the family, Spike shared his experiences and challenges with our group in the months leading up to the decision, ever the educator making sure that when the time comes for all of us, we had his wisdom and experience to guide us.
Our group posted nearly 50 Spike stories so the family could share them with Spike to let him know the impact that he had on others. When Josh, another of the nonprofit founders visited with Spike on Sunday prior to his passing, Spike thanked him for all that the group had done for him. Josh in turn thanked Spike for the thousands upon thousands that Spike touched and inspired around the country and that his legacy in the Neuroendocrine Tumor Community will never be forgotten.

Thank you Spike for humoring us, educating us and inspiring us to live life to the fullest.

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Josh Mailman
MarlysaRaye-Jacobus
MarlysaRaye-Jacobus
  1. about 2 months ago
  2. #16
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

A wonderful synopsis of a more-than- wonderful man! Thx for printing this for all in our vast NET communities! It is with Spike’s fortitude and zest for living that makes us patients go out to the world every day to inform/ educate/ lift those...

A wonderful synopsis of a more-than- wonderful man! Thx for printing this for all in our vast NET communities! It is with Spike’s fortitude and zest for living that makes us patients go out to the world every day to inform/ educate/ lift those around us who are also experiencing what Spike contracted—- it makes ME a stronger person ( I have personally become a mouthpiece about NET, showing everyone that positivity & educating others works!) and offers NET- related people hope and a continued zest for life too! GODD begets GOOD ……. Even when there is sorrow, fear, poor health, etc. I have discovered that Spike’s attitude will run off on others!!?

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MarlysaRaye-Jacobus
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