ALS Awareness Month: A series on local heroes making a difference in the ALS community. Share your story #alshero @ALSCanada Cherrie-Marie Chiu My name is Cherrie-Marie Chiu and my brother Christopher was diagnosed with ALS two and a half years ago. Christopher was only 32 years old when he was diagnosed. It started with him stubbing his toe while playing volleyball and soon his leg was giving way. The testing began in the summer and a few months later he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Christopher and I are lucky to have come from such a loving and caring family. He has our amazing mom who dotes on him every hour of the day. He has his friends, cousins, aunts and uncles, who visit or take him out regularly. But every day is not amazing. Every day there are changes in what he can and cannot do. He can no longer play volleyball, golf or ride his motorcycle. What may have been most heartbreaking was when he had to sell his photography equipment; Christopher was a successful young entrepreneur. Since he was diagnosed, the family and his friends, and Christopher have taken things in stride. We all want to do something to help. The problem is we cannot do everything. This is where advocacy and fundraising is SO important! The annual WALK for ALS is a critical part of fundraising for the disease. Because we still do not know what causes ALS, we need the assistance of the researchers and scientists. Because we cannot rely on government funding alone, the money raised from the WALKs are even more important. The funds raised from these WALKs have also benefited my brother directly through the use of equipment. ALS is sometimes also called the bankruptcy disease because equipment and care can be very costly. One of my personal goals is to spread the word about ALS. People think that because I named my dog after a baseball player (Ken Griffey Jr) that I knew who Lou Gehrig was and what the illness was. Truth is, I knew nothing. The more we tell people about this disease, about how it spreads through your body leaving you helpless, the more people know, the better the chances we will have at raising funds, advocating for improved assistance from the Canadian government, and finding a cure. Register for a WALK in your community at walkforals.ca #walkforals
Posted on: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 16:03:37 +0000