May is ALS Awareness Month, an annual grassroots effort led by the ALS community and The ALS Association to raise awareness about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and move people to action in advancing the search for effective treatments and a cure. The Tennessee Chapter requested a Proclamation by Governor Bill Haslam to recognize May as ALS Awareness Month in Tennessee. The request was approved!
ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.
Eventually, people with ALS lose the ability to initiate and control muscle movement, which often leads to total paralysis and death within two to five years of diagnosis. For unknown reasons, veterans are twice as likely to develop ALS as the general population. There is no known cause or cure. Currently, there is only one drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that modestly extends survival. Proactive, expert community-based and clinical care has proven to improve quality and extend life by three times as much.
As an important part of ALS Awareness Month, hundreds of people from across the U.S. will travel to Washington, D.C. from May 8-10 to urge lawmakers to advocate for more ALS research funding and to advance policies to help people living with the disease at The Association’s National ALS Advocacy Day and Public Policy Conference.
Help us amplify our message during this year’s National ALS Advocacy Day and Public Policy Conference by encouraging family and friends to communicate and utilize Facebook & Twitter to share their ALS story with Members of Congress.
Since almost every member relies on social media to gauge issues that are important to their constituency, we have a great opportunity to leverage not only our time with representatives when we meet with them in their offices, but also their attention to social media, urging them to do more to help fund ALS research and priorities important to the entire ALS community.