Thank you for visiting my (and Cody's) team page!

On Sunday, November 3, I'm honored to be running the TCS New York City Marathon as part of Team ALS TDI, on behalf of the The ALS Therapy Development Institute.

As many of you know, my mother, Cody van Heerden, was an avid runner, walker and hiker. My mother got me hooked on running when I was 13 and I have not stopped since. It was running that has also helped me cope with what happened to my mother, my family and our community over the 7 months following her ALS diagnosis until her death. Whenever I have been overwhelmed, I lace up my shoes and run to Little Long Pond (in Maine) or Central Park (in New York) and hit the trails to clear my mind. 

Throughout the last year, I got to feel first hand the support of an amazing community -- we had friends and strangers (who have since become friends) help us in every way possible and we were lucky enough to have access to whatever therapies we wanted to try. Unfortunately the current scientific advances were not enough, and on September 12, 2018, we lost my mother, friend, and mentor.

I would like this opportunity to raise money to support ALS research (where funds are lacking) so that future patients and their families / friends do not have to suffer such a loss as we did. Please help me by donating to the groundbreaking research that ALS TDI is doing.

Thank you for your support.