As a physician for 40 years I have had the honor of caring for an infinite variety of patients, the most amazing and courageous among them have been those suffering from progressively disabling, ultimately fatal conditions like ALS.  The physical challenges are incomprehensible and the knowledge of the inevitable decline is tragic. Unlike so many of the more common diseases for which effective management or cures have been found, unfortunately those for progressive neurologic diseases like ALS remain elusive. As we all know, medical progress and treatment require scientific research, and research needs funding. While the government may do its part, it is insufficient and private sector nonprofit organizations like the ALS Therapy Development Institute play a critical role in advancement of these scientific efforts. As you too have likely done in the past, I have contributed to my friends and family who have physically participated in these important forms of fundraisi...ng. This year I have decided to put my heart, lungs, and legs as well into my support for this cause, and committed to participate in a two day, 200 mile bike ride in New England, the Tri-State Trek, along with my three sons. Although I have never ridden nearly this far, I am training regularly in anticipation of the challenge, an opportunity those afflicted with ALS never have. I will be thinking of them and the mountain they climb every day while I ride, with hope that our efforts will be able to benefit them in the future.

Here is more information about the event and the important work ALS TDI is doing:

Over more than 20 years, the Tri-State Trek has raised over $12 million dollars for research at ALS TDI. These funds have helped ALS TDI: 

•  Become the first nonprofit biotech to develop a potential treatment for ALS and bring it from our lab through FDA review and into human clinical trials. 

•  Rigorously screen more than 500 potential treatments for ALS – more than any other research lab in the world. 

•  Launch the ALS Research Collaborative (ARC), the longest running natural history study in alls, which partners with people with ALS to learn more about the disease and find potential treatments faster. 

• Pioneer a collaboration with Google to develop entirely new digital biomarkers of ALS.”