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https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20190&cosponId=28849
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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2019 - 2020 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: March 18, 2019 02:43 PM
From: Senator Lawrence M. Farnese, Jr.
To: All Senate members
Subject: Recognizing May 2019 as “Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Awareness (ALS) Month” in Pennsylvania
 
I will introduce a resolution recognizing May 2019 as “Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Awareness (ALS) Month” in Pennsylvania.

Commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, ALS is a fatal neurodegenerative disease. As the disease progresses, patients experience difficulty breathing, swallowing and speaking and eventually, muscles atrophy so that the patient becomes a functional quadriplegic. At the same time, ALS does not affect a patient’s mental capacity, so the patient remains alert and aware of his or her loss of motor functions and the inevitable outcome of continued deterioration and death. Currently, there is no known cause, means of prevention, or cure.

ALS most commonly affects those between the ages of 40 and 70 years and affects both men and women without bias. Members of the military are two times more likely to be diagnosed with ALS than the general population, making ALS a service connected disease.

The ALS Association supports over 1,000 people with Lou Gehrig's Disease in Pennsylvania. They support families with ALS at Multidisciplinary Clinics in every region of the state. They also provide services such as in-home care, wheelchairs, home ramping, support groups, education programs, communication devices, and van transportation. A list of ALS association clinics in Pennsylvania can be found at http://webwpawv.alsa.org/site/PageNavigator/WPAWV_8_Clinics.html .

The ALS Association also provides more money for ALS research than any other organization aside from the federal government.

​Another ALS advocacy organization is the ALS Hope Foundation. The foundation is located within Temple University's Lewis Katz School of Medicine. The foundation was the first multidisciplinary ALS clinic in the country. For more than 19 years the ALS Hope Foundation has worked to find a cause and a cure for ALS.

Please join me in recognizing and providing education on the terrible impacts of this disease by co-sponsoring this resolution.



Introduced as SR122