Make a Difference:
Join the Fight Against ALS

Picture this, a disease that kills the same amount of people in a year as if a plane of 215 people crashed every other week with no survivors. Now, you would think everyone would know about this disease and everyone would help. That is not true for ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). ALS kills around 5,600 people every year, but not everyone knows about it or helps. You should become an ALS advocate to help us fight this deadly disease.

My mom has ALS, a disease that weakens your muscles and eventually kills you. Approximately 5,600 people die with ALS in a year, and 5,600 get diagnosed with ALS. In the United States alone, 35,000 people have ALS at any given time. The pathetic thing is ALS has been around for about 140 years and we are barely closer to finding a cure than we were 140 years ago. Sure, people have donated money, spread the word, and given speeches, but we need more of all that. Those 5,600 people a year are depending on  it.

Now, some people might say, “Why bother? It’s not affecting me.” Ah, but you might get diagnosed with ALS sometime in your life. Also, someone you love might be going to have ALS sometime in the future. There’s no way to prevent ALS. It strikes men and women, young and old, all races and ethnicities. Help now, so if you do get ALS in the future, it might be treatable.

Another reason you should get involved is it’s easy to become an ALS advocate. There are many ways to become an ALS advocate and you can choose the one that best suits you. You could sell homemade cookies or treats for money for ALS (like my sister and I do). You could make a website to raise awareness. You could write letters to your Congressmen and women. You could volunteer to help at an ALS event. You could participate in a Walk for ALS. There’s something to match every interest, and there are activities throughout the year.

You should also help raise awareness for ALS because it feels good to help others. Helping other people is one of the best feelings in life, and you should be able to feel how good that is. Knowing you may be saving lives is the best feeling of all.

Another reason you should help is because ALS currently has no effective treatments. Other diseases like cancer, HIV, and diabetes (to name a few) are also deadly, but at least there is hope with the treatments invented to help with them. Meanwhile, ALS has no effective treatment or cure. Some cancer patients who have been treated are now cancer survivors. There are no ALS survivors. HIV treatments can give patients who are diagnosed today around 24 more years to live. ALS patients, on the other hand, have about 2 to 5 years on average from when they are diagnosed to when they die. Diabetics, with  proper treatment, can live a pretty close to normal life. People with ALS aren’t anywhere close to living normal lives as every muscle group fails. All of that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t help with other terrible diseases, because you should. But you should help with ALS, too.

In conclusion, there are many reasons to help in the fight against ALS. ALS has ruined thousands of families for over a century. It can happen to anyone – even you. Helping in the fight is easy and fun to do, and it leaves you feeling good inside. While advances have been made for fighting other diseases, ALS is stuck where it has always been: no treatment, no cure. You could make a difference in this important fight!

Excerpt from Nick’s School Journal (February 22, 2007)