ALS Champions

This is Mary Beth, the Center Director for Jenny Craig at Gateway here in Austin. I have been with Jenny Craig for 8 years and have loved getting to know you and watching your transformations. I love this job so much. I love each and every one of you who walk through the door. Not many people get to say they love their job the way I do working at Jenny Craig. I have made so many connections and friendships while working here. I come away with love every day

On September 23, 2019, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued its most recent guidance document for the development of potential treatments for ALS. Many representatives of the ALS community – patient advocates like our friends Phil Green and Matt Bellina, researchers, organizations like Augie’s Quest, ALS TDI, Team Gleason and IamALS – gathered in Washington to collaborate with government officials to help fast-track the funding, clinical research design, and focus needed to uncover effective treatments and an ultimate cure for this disease.

I was diagnosed with ALS my senior year of college. Despite the challenges that ALS has presented, it has been a blessing in disguise.

I was diagnosed with ALS at only 26 years old -- back when I was a caregiver for my mother, who also has ALS. Until then, it never crossed my mind that I would get this disease. I felt like our family had gone through so much already, that it would be so unfair, and impossible, for me to also get this disease. You see, we live with familial ALS. Which means, for us, my diagnosis marks three generations in a row with ALS.

A few months ago, I shared an update about our innovative partnership with Google in this Science Corner. Augie’s Quest support for this particularly exciting work is also sparking a lot of interest in this unique effort, and I thought I’d share a bit more insight into the genesis of this study and collaboration.

My name is  Sophie Wallace, and I just turned seventeen. I live with my mom, two brothers, two dogs, and one fish named Franc. I like to bake and spend time with my friends. I’m a cheerleader and the president of the ALS club at my high school. I’m not exactly sure what I want to be when I’m older, all I know is that I want to help people.

As a loving father of four wonderful children (Arianne-17, Hunter-15, Parker-11, Whitney-8) and a husband to a smart, talented, and beautiful wife (Jennifer), my ALS diagnosis in August 2018 came as a complete shock to us all!

Brian Wallach is an ALS Warrior on a mission to win this ALS fight, to unlock critical breakthroughs for not just ALS, but Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Frontal Temporal Dementia, and beyond and save the lives of millions of people. He founded I AM ALS