ALS charity walk set for Saturday

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on September 15, 2023.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Shelley Thom knows how horrible ALS is on people afflicted with the disease and their families.
Thom’s husband Gerard died of AlS after a two-year battle and his family suffered with him.
Shelley Thom is part of a committee of volunteers, who along with the ALS Society of Alberta, have organized the Lethbridge Walk for ALS fundraiser on Saturday.
The walk will be staged Saturday at 10 a.m. at Henderson Lake. Registration is at 9 a.m. at the horseshoe pits picnic shelter.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, says the ALS Society, is “a rapid, always fatal neurodegenerative disease. It attacks the nerves of the body that would normally send messages from the brain to the muscle, resulting in weakness and wasting. Eventually, the individual with ALS is left completely immobilized, with loss of speech and an inability to swallow and breathe. There is no known cause or cure for this devastating disease.”
It’s a disease that has claimed many including Toronto Maple Leafs great Borje Salming. Other athletes who have been afflicted with it include former NFL players Steve McMichael of the Chicago Bears and Steve Gleason of the New Orleans Saints, CFL player Tony Proudfoot, baseball player Jim ‘Catfish’ Hunter and Danny Johnson, a former captain of the WHA Winnipeg Jets.
“It’s a slow, painful death,” said Thom on Thursday. For a family to keep a sufferer at home during the inevitable course of the disease will cost them about $250,000, said Thom.
People with ALS lose their ability to use their limbs, to talk, and eventually swallow.
And while they lose control of their bodies, victim’s minds are still active and healthy.
“Every doctor will tell you it’s the most horrible disease. It’s just nasty,’ said Thom.
The ALS Society of Alberta is a charitable organization aimed at making each day the best possible for not only people living with ALS but those affected by it.
” We achieve this by providing support, facilitating the provision of care, promoting awareness, helping find a cure, and advocating for change,” says the society.

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