After finding a mass behind his eye a skate shop owner learns to ride again

YARDLEY, Pennsylvania -- Rich Van Horn has been running Dogwood Skate shop for the past six years.

He says skating has been a part of his life ever since he was 10 years old.

During the pandemic, he started to notice dizziness accompanied by extremely painful headaches.

In January 2022, after getting them checked out by an eye doctor, he found out that he had a 13mm mass behind his right eye.

He went into surgery almost immediately to remove the tumor and has been recovering ever since.

He started with a walker, graduated to a cane and is now walking on his own.

Since skating has always been a part of his life, his goal was to get back on the board.

In May of 2022 he was able to finally take that step and ride again.

Van Horn says he is still recovering and is not even close to 100%.

He will only ride here and there and for short periods of time.

His fiancé, Natalie Spatafora, says his scans so far have all come back clear.

He says he could not make it through this process without the tremendous love and support from his family and his skating community.