Mayor Rogero met with members of the Tennessee Chapter of the ALS Association today and presented them with a proclamation in which she proclaimed May 1-31 as ALS Month.

Join Knoxville's walk on October 6. 

Those present to accept the proclamation were Bayard Erskine who was diagnosed with ALS nearly two years ago and Carianne Meystrick who was diagnosed with ALS nearly 15 years ago.

Karen Bowdle, Development Associate for the Tennessee Chapter of the ALS Association presented a special "HOPE LIVE WALK" t-shirt to Mayor Rogero in honor of the "Walk to Defeat ALS" walks in Tennessee.

Knoxville's walk is scheduled for October 6 and you can register to walk at http://www.alstn.org.

ABOUT ALS

ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and it is a motor neuron disease. Although the cause of ALS is not completely understood, the last decade has brought a wealth of new scientific understanding about the disease that provides hope for the future. Lou Gehrig first brought national and international attention to the disease in 1939 when he abruptly retired from baseball after being diagnosed with ALS.

Most commonly, the disease strikes people between the ages of 40 and 70, and as many as 30,000 Americans have the disease at any given time.

ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that usually attacks both upper and lower motor neurons and causes degeneration throughout the brain and spinal cord. A common first symptom is a painless weakness in a hand, foot, arm or leg, which occurs in more than half of all cases. Other early symptoms include speech swallowing or walking difficulty.

For more information about ALS and the Tennessee Chapter of the ALS Association please visit http://www.alstn.org.