Elizabeth Kennedy still remembers when her mother, Stephanie, first started experiencing neurological hurdles stemming from ALS.
“My mom started experiencing symptoms of ALS in 2019, but we did not know that it was ALS at the time, obviously. Her first symptom was that she went out to start the car and was unable to turn the key in the ignition,” Kennedy said. “She spent a week up at Mayo Clinic and they diagnosed her with ALS; that was in February of 2020.”
Since then, the family has raised nearly $30,000 for the Les Turner ALS Foundation in the former Rochester Elementary School teacher’s honor. Stephanie died in December 2021.
Elizabeth said the foundation, which is based in northern Illinois, assisted her family emotionally and financially while her mom received care at Northwestern University.
“They provided support emotionally by having a social worker that talked with her on a regular basis,” she said. “They got her an eye gaze machine, so as she lost her ability to talk, she was able to use her eyes with this eye gaze machine to communicate.”
ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is an aggressive disease that causes nerves to degenerate and limits the ability of those afflicted to move their muscles – it does not typically affect mental functioning.
George Kennedy, Stephanie’s husband, told Illinois Times that in addition to the ALS Walk for Life happening at Soldier Field in Chicago on Oct. 24 to support the Les Turner ALS Foundation, there will be a local Walk to Defeat ALS at Southwind Park on Saturday, Oct. 17.
“It’s a combination of neighborhood people and friends that we had and a lot of friends that Stephanie had,” he said. “We still make a pretty good showing.”
George also said he hopes clinicians discover a cure for ALS someday.
“It’s not a very nice disease,” he said, telling those interested to “make some donations and unfortunately, for the people who have ALS, to get involved with (clinical) tests if they can and hopefully (researchers) can find a cure for it.”
The Springfield walk is one mile, hosted by The ALS Association. Find out more information and donate here. Funds are used to support caregiving, research and lobbying efforts.
