English professor participates in the fight against ALS

Now in his second year as an Assistant Professor of English in the Department of Language and Literature, Dr. Paul Niemeyer is organizing an ALS Walk that will take place Nov. 8 on campus. ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Early symptoms include muscle weakness, speech impairment, shortness of breath, and difficulty swallowing, just to name a few. The degeneration of motor neurons causes them to die, which causes a loss of control over muscle movement. In extreme cases, patients may become completely paralyzed. The November Walk here at the university will be one of the nearly 150 taking place around the country as part of the ALS Association’s Walk to Defeat ALS movement. Now in its ninth year, the Walk increases awareness of ALS and raises much-needed funds for ALS patient care. “I know from experience how vital the money is,” Niemeyer said. In 2003 Niemeyer lost his mother to ALS just three days shy of her seventieth birthday. During the less than two-year period of the disease’s course, his family required in-home care, a hospital bed, wheelchair, talking hand-held computer and more-all of which added up. “There was so little funding for the ALS Association in Tucson, AZ, at the time that my father had to turn to the Multiple Sclerosis Association. Thankfully, they came through. ALS patients and their families need the kind of support-morally and [in] terms of medicine and equipment-that the ALS Association provides,” said Niemeyer.According to the ALS Association, roughly 5,600 new cases are diagnosed each year, about 15 every day.”The great thing about the ALS Walks is that all money raised stays in the community-in our case, South Texas,” said Niemeyer.Also involved in the effort is the TAMIU Student Government, particularly through the efforts of Alejandra Lascurain, Senator for the A.R. Sanchez School of Business. Lascurain helps spread the word at the student body Senate’s weekly open meetings by passing out brochures and encouraging students to participate. ALS bears the name of its most famous sufferer, Major League Baseball Hall-of-Famer Lou Gehrig. In 1925 Gehrig joined the New York Yankees, and by 1939 he played in an astonishing 2,130 consecutive games-one of the most revered records in sports history and one that would not be broken until 1995. His career ended early when doctors at the Mayo Clinic diagnosed him with ALS. He shared the news with the public on July 4, 1939, when he stood in Yankee Stadium and delivered one of the most remembered speeches in American sports and pop culture. While research has drastically improved the understanding of ALS since Gehrig’s day, there is still no cure, and ALS remains one of the least-promoted and under-funded diseases in the United States. For this reason, Niemeyer hopes people come out to support the effort. “I’m involved as a way of keeping my mother’s memory alive and to do what I can for those in our community who suffer from ALS. Also, since the Walk takes place on our campus, I believe the TAMIU community should be represented in full force.”To participate in the ALS Walk on Nov. 8 or to help fund treatment for sufferers of ALS in South Texas, contact Paul Niemeyer at 956- 326-2645 or e-mail him at pniemeyer@tamiu.edu.