Often Awesome, Documenting Tim LaFollette’s Battle With ALS

“Often Awesome” is an amazing web series documenting Tim LaFollette’s battle with ALS (aka Lou Gehrig’s disease). Episode #26 is a recap of the first year. Here’s how to donate to help with Tim’s fight against this awful disease.

Our friend, Timothy LaFollette, is incredible. He is also sick. An unfair, scary and painful kind of sick that can’t be fixed. In April 2009, Tim was diagnosed at age 29 with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). At least five generations of Tim’s family have died from ALS, including his mother and grandmother, who both died within a year of their diagnosis. Tim’s subtype of ALS has a median survival rate of 12 months. Tim survived his first diagnosis “birthday”, but there have been no advances in treatment in the 28 years since his mother’s death. Tim is almost house-bound and has lost his ability to care for his basic needs. There is a silver lining to this seemingly sad story. Tim can discuss his decline with humor and truthfulness and he has the kind of friends that give you faith in humanity. We felt helpless as we watched our friend lose muscle control and his ability to breathe on his own. We desperately wanted to care for our friend and so the Often Awesome Army was born. Our “Army” started off as a close-knit group. It grew into a 1400+ person movement with t-shirts, a care team, benefit shows and an award winning web series!

via One Thing To See