ALS, another one of those acronyms that fills our everyday language. The first time I ever heard it was back when they were doing those Ice Bucket challenges to help raise money for worthy causes. At that, though, it was my husband who filled me in on the history of the disease in regard to one of his all-time baseball heroes, Lou Gehrig.
WHAT IS ALS?
ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis but became known as Lou Gehrig’s disease because the Yankee legend was diagnosed with it. It’s so ironic that the man who became known as “The Iron Horse” due to his awesome abilities as a hitter and for his durability on the field which led to a then Major League record of playing in 2,130 consecutive games which stood for 56-years was cut down in mid-stride by this disease. But seeing that ALS is a progressive degeneration of nerve cells that control muscle movements, at the beginning of the 1939 season Gehrig began losing his ability to perform. And just one month into the season, Gehrig voluntarily benched himself on May2, 1939, ending not only his 2,130 game playing streak, but his entire career. The following month, after extensive testing at the Mayo Clinic in Chicago, the diagnosis of ALS was confirmed on June 19, and two days later, Gehrig’s retirement was announced by the Yankees. It was just short of two-years later, June 2, 1941, that Gehrig died. His wife of 8-years, Eleanor, never remarried and was quoted as saying, “I had the best of it. I would not have traded two minutes of my life with that man for 40 years with another.” She dedicated the remainder of her life to supporting ALS research.
HOW WE CAN HELP
And that’s what I’m here to speak about, now: Helping to end this terrible disease. The easiest thing to do is go to ALS Therapy Development Institute Donation Page and give your heartfelt support. The goal this year is to raise $50,000. And up to $25,000 will be matched dollar for dollar by an unknown, but very generous donor. All of us can raise funds to help make ALS a thing of the past. It takes a village to get it done and we want you in our village to #EndALS.
The Ice Bucket challenge was how I found about it as well. It will be awesome when they find a cure for it. – yolonda
I think the ice bucket challenge is where ALS gained a numerous amount of awareness. I hope that one day they have a cure for this awful disease.
This is such a devastating disease. We just had a friend pass from it not more than a month ago. Hopefully a cure is just around the corner.
It’s so nice to be able to help beat this disease. It doesn’t take much effort. I think it’s amazing that you’re raising awareness on this. A little goes a long way.
I have always been blown away at just how quickly this disease takes over our bodies. I think they should do the ice bucket challenge more often, it did a lot to raise awareness.
The Ice Bucket Challenge really helped tot inform a large part of the world about this illness. IT is amazing how we can use social media for good but it always seems to be filled with the bad.
Anything that helps draw attention to diseases like ALS and others that affect so many people is good. You can see how much attention the ice bucket challenge drew to ALS.