Golf fund-raiser for medical expenses for industry vet Ray Barone

A golf tournament is being organized to help raise money to cover medical expenses for longtime fitness industry veteran Ray Barone.

The tournament will be June 11 at the Sun City Country Club in Sun City, Ariz. Click here to see details.



Thirteen-year industry vet Barone, 44, (pictured right with his family) was diagnosed in April with End-Stage Renal Disease after starting to feel ill suddenly in January. He tells SNEWS® the doctors say he likely won’t be able to work again.

Barone said he started getting symptoms in January but they worsened in early April until his wife, Kristine, “dragged me to the emergency room — I still didn’t want to go.”

Barone said he had lost 35 pounds and was vomiting daily, plus getting “weird muscle cramps” and his skin was so itchy it kept him up at night. He was diagnosed with kidney failure (at 0-percent function) as well as congestive heart failure, which was caused by the kidney problems, he told SNEWS.

Barone, who has two kids (ages 13 and 9), began in the industry in 1998 at The Fitness Experience and continued there until it went bankrupt in 2005. Since then he has worked for ProSpot Fitness, BH Fitness, Fitness4home Superstore and Lifestyle Fitness. He has been most recently involved in the marriange of the UltraFit Gym Store in Phoenix, with a CrossFit gym. Click here to see that SNEWS story from Dec. 22, 2010.

He can be reached at crushyournumber@yahoo.com, but he added that he is not up to telephone conversations.

For more information about the golf event, contact Jill Malley at 623-329-3954.

–Therese Iknoian