How two women are fighting back against Lou Gehrig’s disease

THIS BLOG IS ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN AUDIO CAST

Mary Ann Wittenberg (left) and Nadia Sethi

Lou Gehrig’s disease, or ALS, is a nasty degenerative condition that destroys the brain cells controlling movement. People with ALS suffer a progressive loss of ability to walk, talk, eat and breathe.

The average life expectancy for someone diagnosed with ALS is just two to five years. It has a devastating impact on the people diagnosed and their families.

On the latest episode of our podcast, Talking ‘Bout (re)Generation, we talk to two women who have suffered a loss in this fight, but who are using their experience with ALS to help others battling the disease.

Nadia Sethi became the Director of Community Engagement and Outreach at the ALS Therapy Development Institute after losing her husband to ALS. 

Mary Ann Wittenberg’s husband Harry fought the disease in a public way, starting a blog called “Welcome to My World, How Life Has Changed and Making it Work.” Mary Ann is now carrying on that mission of demystifying the disease.

Their courage and determination to turn a tragedy into something positive, to help others, and to hopefully play a role in finding treatments to help people with ALS, is deeply moving and inspiring.

We hope you enjoy this special episode of ‘Talking ‘Bout (re)Generation’.

CIRM has invested more than $92 million in 33 different projects targeting ALS. You can read about them on our ALS Fact Sheet.

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