'Tag Days' helped boost ALS research

Every 90 minutes, someone in the United States is diagnosed with ALS and every 90 minutes, someone in the U.S. dies from ALS.

At the Les Turner ALS Foundation, we're committed to changing that.

In May, in honor of National ALS Awareness Month, hundreds of Les Turner ALS Foundation volunteers lined the streets from Barrington to Flossmoor and Elgin to Lake Forest collecting donations and distributing education material as part of our annual Tag Days drives.

Nearly $34,000 was raised through this grass-roots effort. In Barrington, Bob Lee and Chris Maytnier led this wildly successful effort, collecting nearly $11,000 from generous donors.

Funds raised through Tag Days will help support groundbreaking ALS research and clinical care at the Les Turner ALS Research and Patient Center at Northwestern Medicine.

ALS is a rapidly progressive neuromuscular disease that attacks a person's muscles, gradually robbing them of their ability to walk, speak, eat and breathe, yet generally keeping their mind intact. While some symptoms are treatable, there is currently no prevention or cure.

The month of May also brought momentum to ALS news: a new ALS gene discovery from Drs. Teepu Siddique and Han-Xiang Deng's lab at the Les Turner ALS Research and Patient Center at Northwestern Medicine, as well as the FDA approval of Radicava TM, the first drug approved for ALS in 22 years.

For 40 years, the Les Turner ALS Foundation has been Chicagoland's leader in research, patient services and education about ALS, serving the vast majority of people with ALS in the area, offering hope and help when it's needed most.

To those who supported Tag Days, thank you.

Andrea Pauls Backman, Executive Director

Les Turner ALS Foundation

Skokie