Please Sponsor Me

I am asking you to support me in the Fiesta 5K which is being held May 2nd in Baltimore to raise money for the Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins. As many of you know, my brother Gary was diagnosed with ALS at the age of 52 and two weeks after a very respectable finish in the Walt Disney World Half-Marathon. As of this morning, Team Low & Slow (so named after Maryland Terps and a navy helicopter reference) is 53 strong and has raised $13,900 for the Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins. To say the least, my family is humbled and extremely grateful by the outpouring of love and support for my brother Gary.

Our family will be descending on Baltimore from California, DC, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia for the Fiesta 5K. Because ALS is so rare (only 10,000 diagnosed yearly) and so deadly (2-5 years after diagnosis), there is very little fundraising that goes on and this disease is overlooked by the pharmaceutical companies because it is not a "money maker." Unfortunately, the outlook for someone diagnosed with ALS is the same today as it was in 1938 when Lou Gehrig was diagnosed.

I hope that you will sponsor me. Any amount, great or small, helps in the fight against ALS. I greatly appreciate your support and will keep you posted on my progress. Thanks for being such great friends!

John O’C