Thank you for stopping by and helping me reach my Walk to Defeat ALS(TM) fundraising goal!  Please consider walking with me or sponsoring me. With your help, we will be able to make a difference in the lives of people affected by this disease.

Why I Need Your Help.  Here is why I'm walking:
This particular charity is personally close to my heart because my maternal grandmother: Minnie Crews Galimore, died of this disease in 1980.

If you’re not aware, this disease is a progressively fatal neuromuscular disease that slowly takes away your ability to walk, speak, swallow and breathe. The life expectancy of ALS patients averages from 2-5 years from the time of diagnosis. This disease can strike anyone and there is no known cause or cure for it.

I was very young when my grandmother passed away but my mom remembers her experience very well still to this day. She remembers that it all began with a simply heaviness of her legs. She realized that she couldn’t lift one of her legs well enough to walk normally. It began to get worse and she consulted her doctor. Her doctor at the time went through normal steps to try and determine the root cause. As they realized things were getting progressively worse, they sent her to a neurologist in Greensboro, NC. This was where she received the diagnosis of ALS. My mom remembers that her first thought was, ‘oh thank god it’s not cancer’. Today she says that if she knew then what she knows now, she would have prayed for it to have been cancer. My grandmother’s neurologist was a brilliant man however my mother describes his bedside manner that to one akin to Adolph Hitler. He had his facts and figures all laid out and just looked at them and said, ‘You will die from this and it will probably be in the next 2-3 years, end of story’. When the reality of that sunk in, my mom began to read and look for other alternatives but there were none. My mom refused to give up hope but as she watched my grandmothers’ progression, she knew there was no hope. She watched her move to a wheelchair and then lose the ability to speak clearly. She began to be unable to use her arms and hands very well and couldn’t swallow. She had to have a feeding tube inserted and couldn’t control her saliva which required the constant wiping of her mouth and thus caused sores. She could see bit by bit and piece by piece, she was wasting away. My grandfather was dealing with this the best way he knew how but the day to day care was left to my mom’s two sisters that still lived in town with my grandparents. Her oldest sister Shelby became the real caretaker of my grandmother. My mom and dad were living here in Raleigh and my brother was 4. I had yet to be born at this time. As the year 1979 came around, my parents traveled to her hometown every weekend. They gave my aunt Shelby a break and took what she noted as ‘weekend duty’. It was also to make sure she spent time with her as the doctors could give them no indication of how long my grandmother would live. It felt like every weekend might be her last weekend with my grandmother. It was truly the worst thing my mom had ever seen. She sat up many nights on the weekend hearing her cry out because she couldn’t make anyone understand what she needed. Ultimately my grandmother lost control of every function in her body, even the ability to blink her eyes but the entire time her mind was still there. She knew exactly what was going on, she just couldn’t do anything to control it or herself. My grandmother eventually passed away in her home.

The money raised for the ALS association goes to the local ALS chapter to fund research to find a cause of this disease and hopefully someday find a cure for it. The ALS Association provides communities with the following CARE SERVICES:
• ALS counseling and educational programs
• Mobility and home adaptation programs to help build wheelchair ramps
• Durable medical equipment loan programs to provide walkers and wheelchairs for patients
• Support groups for people with ALS, caregivers, families and survivors
• Advocacy/public policy programs to ensure that legislators at both the state and federal levels are fully aware of the needs of the ALS community
• ALS clinic support programs
• Financial grant programs

All these things may seem small, but they are vital to these families in need. I would very much appreciate your support with a donation to my team to help fund further research for this disease, help fund care for patients and support for families of the patients. Any support you can give is appreciated.