Just a Walk on the Beach? (by my brother)

My brother, who is presently suffering with ALS, just sent this. Please visit my d'Feet ALS walk web page and help us.

Just a Walk on the Beach?

I want you to think back, imagine in your mind, totally block all other thoughts out, just focus on what you are reading. Close your eyes to all your surroundings for just a few minutes.

Imagine, your walking along the beach and you see kids starting to bury the feet of a young persons with sand, packing it down, adding water to make it good and heavy so the feet can’t move. Can you see him? Standing with no movement in his feet? Can you? He can handle it right?

You continue down the sandy beach as the ocean waves continue to splash. You come upon another group of kids that have buried this young persons feet, calves, just above his knees. You watch as he concentrates on his balance a bit more. Can you see him? Have you ever lost your balance? Do you remember that feeling? Do you? Should you help yet?

You go down further and you come to another group burying a young persons feet, legs, waist and hands. Not only can he not move his feet and legs but now his hands won’t move right. All statuesque, unable to move can you see him? Can you? Ready yet?

As you’re reaching the end of the beach you see yet another group. Packing sand from his feet to his throat. As you look on you can see that he can’t walk, move his arms, struggling to breath from the weight of the sand. He can’t talk from the pressure on throat. You can now see the fear in his eyes of when will the tide come in. Can you see him? Can you? Have you asked how can help or just stand by and watch?

As you walk around the front of him looking in his fear filled eyes you realize that you recognize this young man. It’s your son! Are you ready to help yet? What will you do now? Are you too late?

DON’T WAIT TILL IT EFFECTS SOMEONE YOU LOVE, HELP NOW!!

Strike out ALS.

Ken Timmons

Again, please visit my d'Feet ALS walk web page and help us.

Thanks.

My 2009 d'Feet ALS Walk Page

My brother Ken has ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Every year, our family participates in the ALS association's Columbus chapter's Walk to Defeat ALS, and this year is no different.

Please help us defeat ALS by visiting my 2009 d'Feet ALS walk page.

Thanks so much.

My Brother Kenny on YouTube

A YouTube video of my brother Kenny and his family is now available. It is an interview segment with them for the MDA telethon held on Labor Day. My brother has ALS, which is also known as "Lou Gehrig's disease."

The MDA is one of many organizations fighting this disease, and yet the general public knows very little about it and researchers are having a hard time getting positive results from animal models to perform equally as well in human tests.

PLEASE help support my brother and ALS research in general by donating to my d'Feet ALS walk page.

Walk because you CAN

QUICK SUMMARY: SUPPORT ME in my walk to d'Feet ALS!

Later this month, I'll be walking in my 3rd Walk to d'Feet ALS. My brother Kenny has ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). It's a fatal disease that few people know much about, and researchers are having a hard time even slowing its progression. Stephen Hawking has a mild form of ALS that has progressed slowly enough for him to live a relatively long life. The disease has put him in a wheelchair and taken away nearly all control of all of his muscles, but it has left his mind sharp. The same thing has happened to my bother, who is shown in a wheelchair here earlier in the disease's progression:

Now he still is in a wheelchair (or frequently his recliner), but it usually has a computer attached whose mouse is controlled by his eye movements (a camera captures them). He has a joystick to move him around. It's not too much unlike Stephen Hawking.

My brother's form of the disease is not genetic, but there are genetic forms that they use in the laboratory. Scientists don't understand the cause of ALS, and so they have to use the genetic form in the laboratory and hope they can make discoveries that help everyone. So far successes that they've had with mice models in the laboratory don't map well onto humans. There's so much more work that needs to be done.

Senate Republican Tom Coburn of Oklhaoma has put blocks on bills that would support ALS research. He uses them as leverage. Just weeks ago, a Republican filibuster prevented passage of the ALS registry act. You see, there's not even a nationwide registry of who gets ALS. My brother also had a strange case of shingles when he was younger, and maybe that has something to do with him developing ALS later on in life. If doctors could look for correlations among people with ALS, they could figure these things out, but they'd need a nationwide ALS registry for that. For the moment, Republicans are preventing that. (oh, and stem cell research (embryonic and otherwise) benefits ALS research too)

I can't vote against Tom Coburn (I'm registered to vote in Ohio). I can try to get Republicans out of office. More importantly and more quickly, I can participate in this walk. I can donate to the ALS association. I can spread the word. AND SO CAN YOU.

So come and support my walk with a donation or come and walk yourself. I'll appreciate it, and so will Kenny, and so will Stephen Hawking and many others who were surprised to find one day that they have some link to this sad disease.

Above all, walk because you can. As my brother recently said on the MDA telethon when they talked to him, ALS does not discriminate.

d'Feet ALS Walk Time Again!

This year, the Columbus d'Feet ALS Walk is on Sunday, September 16, 2007.

My brother has ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), and we participated in this walk for the first time last year (he was diagnosed last year). There was a great turnout. It was neat to see the support from the community.

So, while it's getting late, I hope people will visit my d'Feet ALS walk page and make a donation or become a walker themselves.