Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Motor Neuron Disease (MND), Lou Gehrig's Disease, and Charcot's disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that causes the degeneration and eventual death of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. This results in the wasting away of muscle, loss of movement, and progressive paralysis. Veterans are two times more likely to get ALS than non veterans.

ALS has taken away my ability to walk and has affected my arms and hands, eventually it will affect my breathing, my speech and my ability to eat.  ALS will slowly kill me, I will not be able to breathe on my own, I will be fed by a feeding tube and I will have to use an eyegaze machine to communicate.  It is a devastating disease with no cure today..

This year I am raising money for the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI). Their mission is to discover and develop effective treatments for ALS.  They are the most comprehensive drug discovery lab focused solely on ALS research.Their cutting-edge approach to ALS research incorporates every aspect of drug discovery and development, under one roof, to find potential treatments as quickly as possible. ALS TDI and its researchers quickly discover and validate potential treatments for ALS. It is the world's first and largest nonprofit biotech focused 100 percent on ALS research. Led by drug development experts and people with ALS, ALS TDI understands the urgent need to slow and stop this disease.