CORNWALL, Ontario – ALS Canada held its Walk for ALS in at St. Lawrence College in Cornwall on Saturday, June 4.
Dozens came out in support of the Walk to find treatment and raise awareness for this terrible disease which has no known cause or cure.
ALS is a degenerative disease which slowly shuts down muscle function.
Three Canadians are diagnosed with the disease every day and there are at least 1,000 suffering from it in Ontario.
ALS Canada has been organizing walks across the country since 2004 and Cornwall has been having them for more than ten years.
The goal of the walk this year was $30,000, a number which Lianne Johnston, the Regional Manager for ALS Canada for Eastern Ontario felt was well within their reach. Prior to the day of the event, the Walk had already raised nearly $17,000 through online donations.
The five-km walk started at St. Lawrence College, went to Glen-Stor-Dun Lodge and then came back.
The walk was organized this year by Melissa Ferguson who lost 3 members of her family to the disease.
ALS can develop sporadically and without warning, but it is also hereditary in about 10 per cent of Canadian families.
Every year, there is a special ambassador who leads the ALS Walk. This year the special ambassadors were Douglas and Donna Yendall.
Douglas was diagnosed with ALS last July and Donna says that the support they have received from ALS Canada has been phenomenal.
“Its a two-fold disease,” Donna said. “We are both on a roller-coaster.”
Donna and Douglas also had the distinction of being the most prolific fundraisers for this year’s Walk. Together they raised approximately $6,000.
Donna’s advice for people starting on the same journey as her and Douglas would be to not be afraid to ask for help.
“People don’t know how to react,” she said. “People will say ‘call me if you need me,’ but people don’t want to ask for help. It is better for people to just come over and offer what they can.”
ALS Canada holds fundraisers throughout the year to raise money and awareness.
They will be holding a Jamboree on Sept. 17.
