Dear friend,
When I was diagnosed with ALS in 2011, I was given 2-5 years to live. HERE I AM! Almost 11 years later and I still have the privilege of writing each year to ask for your continued support of our team’s tremendous efforts, and more importantly, the incredibly resilient ALS community.
I’ll keep this short and sweet. Imagine losing your ability to walk, talk, eat and then breathe. Imagine being trapped in your body. It takes away your independence and dignity. I think you trust me when I say, it’s impossible to imagine. ALS is relentless.
Team Gleason aims to be a bright spot in people’s journey with ALS— offering tools and resources that give back much of what the disease takes away.
A few of those critical to living with ALS are:
• Technology to record and preserve a person’s natural voice and phrases while they can still speak. Maintaining someone’s natural voice to speak and for others to hear is so important for sustaining a sense of our unique self.
• Communication devices that empower someone through speech, connectivity, and automation when they can longer move or speak.
• Mobility aids not covered by insurance, like seat elevation for power wheelchairs, which gives a person the height extension necessary to perform independent tasks, natural reach, or regain dignity through accessibility.
