An Interlude from my African Adventures for a more serious topic: ALS

My brother Christopher and I being silly...

In a couple of days I fly off for yet another mini – adventure – Cape Town. It’s supposed to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world! One where two oceans meet, where you can climb a mountain, go paragliding, shark diving, wine tasting, see penguins and eat amazing food all in a day…ok, maybe not in one day but in a few days! And here I am thinking, I am too lucky. How is it that I get to do all this, and my brother is at home suffering from a horrible disease.

My brother Christopher suffers from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. In short, the disease affects you in such as way that your muscles stop working, from your largest to your smallest.

Now I don’t want to speak out of turn, my brother may actually be having a really good day – one in which he was able to sleep all night, enjoy time with his friends and my puppy, have lots of energy and eat well. There is also the possibility that Christopher didn’t have a good day… But the reality is, he’s at home and I’m in Africa.

What made me think of this now?

Well – there’s this awesome little article in McLean’s onALS.

I found it on my Facebook page.

ALS Canada posted it and if you’re my FB friend, you’ve seen that I shared it as well.

Here’s the crazy thing about this disease.

They have no idea what causes it.

And I suppose you can figure out the corollary here, if they don’t know what causes it, then they CANNOT cure it.

It is a horrible thing to live with, and I don’t even have the disease.

Imagine your entire body breaking down right in front of your eyes and you can’t do anything about it.

Remember, your brain is not a muscle – so it’s not affected.

You know everything that is happening to you.

I’m telling you all this because  -

A.      It sucks.

B.    We need help to put an end to this illness. 

C.      I can only think positively about improving my brother’s life and the lives of the 3000 Canadians who currently live with ALS and the thousands others around the world.

Please take the five minutes out of your day it took me to read this short article in Mclean’s. CLICK ME

I would also love it you could share it with those you know. 

And finally, as a family, we 

Janice Robertson and her amazing team
(and me too)

participate in the ALS Canada walk in Toronto. If you would like to find out how to participate or donate, please let me know. ANYTHING helps. 

But just so you know, I’m thinking about doing something BIGGER to help put an end to ALS. I'm going to ask ALL of YOU to help me.

In the article you will hear from, this amazing woman, Janice Robertson –  She and her team (who I’ve also been lucky enough to meet) are making some great inroads in the research of ALS.  Also mentioned in the article is my brother’s doctor, Lorne Zinman.

Thanks for listening.

And perhaps I’ve even incited you to take some action yourself.

Til next time…