Help us in The Fight against ALS
There are significant costs associated with this trip,
but we are paying for our own miles.
However, we hope that our trip and our story inspires others to buy a few miles as well. Not for our journey, that’s entirely on us, but for someone else’s.
Buy miles for the journey of the roughly 6,000 people in the US each year who are diagnosed with ALS.
Buy miles for the friends of ALS patients so they can share a few more meals, a few more drinks, and a few more laughs.
Buy miles for the family of these patients and allow them to take one more trip with their loved ones.
Donations will go directly to the ALS Association Golden West Chapter which is leading the way in global research and providing assistance for people with ALS across the nation.
The mission of The ALS Association is to lead the fight to treat and cure ALS through global research and nationwide advocacy, while also empowering people with Lou Gehrig’s Disease and their families to live fuller lives by providing them with compassionate care and support.
We think that’s a pretty worthy mission, and hope that you will as well.
What is ALS?
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.
There is currently no cure for ALS, but researchers are making progress every day which can allow ALS patients to live longer and more comfortably. The disease can be more aggressive, such as it was for Gilles, or work more slowly paralyzing patients over the course of a few years. Unfortunately, the medical equipment and treatments that patients need can be very expensive, and even with medical insurance, the financial toll the disease takes can rival the emotional one.
The ALS Association supports patients and their families throughout this devastating process, and they also fund research that will help patients and their families in the future. We encourage you to donate to The ALS Association by clicking one of the many donation links on this site.