Voting safely during a pandemic is challenging enough, but what do you do if you're high risk for contracting the coronavirus and facing mobility and motor function challenges? While the 2020 election is now just days away, it’s more important than ever to understand your rights, the voting options available in your state, and make your plan to share your voice.
This is the fourth in a series of posts from people living with ALS who are featured in our #VoiceYourLove campaign. This time of year brings memories of two important days in my life.
This is the third in a series of posts from people living with ALS who are featured in our #VoiceYourLove campaign. Nanci Ryder, a renowned Hollywood publicist and co-founder of BWR Public Relations, was diagnosed with ALS in 2014. Since then, she has worked tirelessly to raise public awareness about ALS, and to advance the search for effective treatments and cures for ALS, with the help of her many friends and supporters. Along with her family and friends, like Renée Zellweger and Courteney Cox, she has participated in the Los Angeles County Walk to Defeat ALS as “Team Nanci”, raising over $690,000 in support of the ALS community.
A sad update about #VoiceYourLove ambassador Ryan Farnsworth: It is with heavy hearts that we share the news that Ryan Farnsworth died the evening of February 19, surrounded by his family. As active ambassadors of The ALS Association’s mission and vision, Ryan and his family selflessly moved us closer to our vision to create a world without ALS. Read more here.
In 2018, many new research discoveries and collaborations accelerated the momentum toward finding treatments and a cure for ALS. We helped lead the way by awarding new grants to top scientists and clinicians all over the world.
The ALS Association is proud to have supported the development of bright, young scientists through the Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship program since 2004. The Safenowitz family, through our Greater New York Chapter, founded the program in memory of Milton Safenowitz, who died of ALS in 1998.
The ALS Association, in partnership with the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MND Association), and the ALS Society of Canada, have come together to support the ALS Reproducible Antibody Platform (ALS-RAP) with a $600,000 grant to create an open-access pipeline to validate antibody research. ALS-RAP will provide the ALS research community with the highest quality reliable, renewable antibodies for ALS genes to galvanize and enable a faster and even more efficient development of therapies to address the ALS challenge, globally.
This year’s annual Society for Neuroscience (SfN) Meeting in Washington, D.C., was a huge gathering of over 30,000 attendees from 80 countries all dedicated to advancing neuroscience. The ALS Association was one of 534 exhibitors and promoted our global TREAT ALS research program.
Dr. Brian Wainger of Massachusetts General Hospital and Stephen Winthrop, Chairman of The ALS Association Board of Trustees, gave their unique clinical trial perspectives during the Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS) webinar titled, “Retigabine Clinical Trial Update & Discussion with ALS Patient Advocate Stephen Winthrop.”