Tulsa: September 2009 Archives

My friend Kathryn Atwood will be walking next month in the Greater Los Angeles Walk to Defeat ALS. This is the third year that she's done this walk, the third year since ALS claimed the life of her father, Dr. Roger M. Atwood, a Tulsa physician. Kathryn's walk team, "Remembering Roger," has a goal to raise $5,000.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease after its most famous victim, has no cure or treatment. The ALS Association is raising money to fund research toward a cure and to provide practical helps to those who suffer from it. Kathryn writes:

During his fight, we discovered the power of the "sock pull" and a little gadget that helped him put on his shirts by himself. All the little things, not to mention the wheelchair and ultimately the Bi-Pap oxygen mask, enabled my dad to maintain his dignity, to feel still a bit self-sufficient even as his muscles stopped working and the disease took firmer hold on his and all of our lives. The money raised from this walk goes directly to helping families cope in a very real, literal way with this disease. It will go toward supplying those important tools like sock pulls and wheel chairs, to those suffering from ALS. It will also go towards spreading awareness of the urgency to find treatments and a cure.

If you were a patient or colleague of Dr. Atwood's, if you're a friend of the family, or if you just want to see a cure found for ALS, please join me in supporting Kathryn's walk in memory of her father.