Hey fam!
Coach Gus here with an urgent message:
As many of you may know, my father was stricken with a slow progressing form of ALS in 2019. My intention for this ride is not only to raise awareness but to raise awarenss and generate funding for this often misunderstood and underfunded disease.
ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease in honor of the American baseball player diagnosed on the New York Yankees who passed from this illness in 1939.
The onset of ALS is insidious with muscle weakness or stiffness as early symptoms. Progression of weakness, wasting and paralysis of the muscles of the limbs and trunk as well as those that control vital functions such as speech, swallowing and later breathing generally follows.
ALS is not contagious.
It is estimated that ALS is responsible for nearly two deaths per hundred thousand population annually. More people die every year of ALS than of Huntington's disease or multiple sclerosis and it occurs two-thirds as frequently as multiple sclerosis.
Approximately 5,600 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with ALS each year. The incidence of ALS (two per 100,000 people) is five times higher than Huntington's disease and about equal to multiple sclerosis. It is estimated that as many as 30,000 Americans may have the disease at any given time.
Although the life expectancy of an ALS patient averages about two to five years from the time of diagnosis, this disease is variable and many people live with quality for five years and more. More than half of all patients live more than three years after diagnosis.
About twenty percent of people with ALS live five years or more and up to ten percent will survive more than ten years and five percent will live 20 years. There are people in whom ALS has stopped progressing and a small number of people in whom the symptoms of ALS reversed.
ALS occurs throughout the world with no racial, ethnic or socioeconomic boundaries.
ALS can strike anyone.
I'm participating in Team Challenge ALS to raise funds and awareness to help fight back against this terrible disease. The ALS Association provides much needed patient services resources, funds global, cutting edge research, and much more in order to help those living with ALS right in our community.
Team Challenge ALS is an exciting opportunity for us to work together to support those affected by ALS and to spread awareness of the urgency of our cause and to push for treatments and a cure.
Challenging ALS is important to me. I ride for my father John Ferro because he can not. I'm asking for your support.. Please make a donation, join my team, or sign up to be a volunteer today.
Prefer to make a donation by check? Click here for a printable donation form!
