Fan of the Month
June is the month of ALS. ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. They gave the name of Lou Gehrig disease after the legendary New York Yankees first baseman who lost his battle with ALS at age of 38. It’s a devastating fatal neuromuscular disease. Nerve cells degenerate, voluntary muscles weaken and become immobile. Every muscles gets affected except the heart and the brain. It causes the progressive degeneration and eventual death of the nerve cells that control movement. Eventually, many are completely paralyzed, unable to speak, swallow and ultimately breathe. ALS can strike anyone, male or female, of any age or ethnicity. ALS is devastating emotionally, physically and financially. It affects the entire family. After diagnosis, 80% of those living with ALS die in two to five years. Everyday two to three Canadians are diagnosis with ALS. Presently there is no known cause, no known treatment and no known cure for ALS. Research is our only hope. To raise money for research and to help people living with ALS there is walks done. Your donation helps in two very critical ways. First it helps supporting direct services for people with ALS and their families like educational information, referrals to local health care and community services, equipment assistance, home visits and co-ordination of peer support groups through the provincial ALS Society. Second is supporting ALS and our funding of breakthrough research to treat and hopefully cure ALS one day. You could ask yourself what you can do to help? Wear a cornflower to show your support. The cornflower is our emblem because despite its fragile appearance it is a hardly wildflower found throughout Canada. Like the cornflower, awareness of ALS and funding for a cure is growing across Canada. I am giving this example in Canada but ALS is not just here it’s all over. Another thing that can help is to volunteer to raise awareness, provide support and raise funds for our mission. Join the WALK for ALS for a location near you visit www.walkforals.ca (of course this is for Canada). You can contact your ALS provincial society to see how you can make a difference in the lives of people living with ALS. All I can say is I hope this will help a bit more to understand what ALS is and hope more people will help us to battle against this HORRIBLE disease. I personally lost my mother-in-law from ALS in 2011. Since I am Walk Coordinator for my region and I am proud of it.