On January 27th, legendary indie music producer J. Robbins and partner Janet Morgan gave birth to their first child, a boy named Callum. As Callum began to grow, his parents began to notice that Cal was having difficulty reaching the development milestones a parent expects from a healthy child. Cal was having difficulties biting his toes, squeezing his parent’s fingers, or even rolling around on his own. After a recent pediatrician’s visit in September, J and Janet were given the news they feared the most, something was in fact wrong with their son. Cal was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy or Type 1 SMA. SMA affects the brain’s ability to communicate with the body’s voluntary muscles, used for such activities as crawling, walking, head and neck control, even breathing and swallowing. If Cal lives past his second birthday, he’ll never be able to walk on his own and will have to endure a lifetime of occupational therapy.

Many know J from his legendary presence in the punk, indie and hardcore scene since the early 80s, from performing in bands such as Government Issue, Jawbox and Burning Airlines or producing such bands as Jets to Brazil, Jawbreaker, The Dismemberment Plan and Against Me!, J has touched many lives in many different ways and now here’s a chance to give back. Being an independent music producer and the sole earner in the family, J’s single-payer insurance surely won’t be of as much help as one would hope, which brings me to independent record label Desoto Record’s drive to help benefit Callum. A (non tax-deductable) account has been created for Callum which you can donate to via PayPal (as well as major credit cards). All donations go directly to the Robbins family in order to continue Callum’s care and to help make the whole family’s life as comfortable as possible in this sad time.

Read more: Donate to the Robbins family to help care for Cal | JRobbins.net