Help young ALS Mom in North Carolina!

My name is Aimee and I am posting today with an urgent request for assistance in the hopes that you can help my sister Corinne. She is 43 years old and has been struck down, rather quickly, with ALS. She is not one to ask for help, but it is vital that she receive some. Things have progressed rather quickly, and simple things that most of us take for granted like getting places in our vehicles, or taking a shower, has become a nearly impossible task for her. We are trying to get her bathroom fitted to hand

icapped accessible so she may receive proper care and either a new van or her van converted, but this is a monumental expense, and we need your help.

Corinne has spent her life helping others. She is not only a mother of 3 children, one of which has autism, but she has been a Medical Assistant since her early twenties. She has been in women’s health, participated in countless breast cancer walks, Walks to End Alzheimer’s, fundraising events for numerous cancer causes, and has been an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. But since being a mother since 21 years old and working full time, it took a lot longer to fulfill her other dream of becoming a licensed nurse. But Corinne still did just that. She worked full time and went to school full time, while still tending to the needs of her kids, and graduated nursing school and became a Licensed Practical Nurse at age 40 with plans to continue on for her RN after working a few years in this current role. Who could have foreseen a devastating diagnosis of ALS would come just 3 short years later? But that it did.

The diagnosis came after Corinne had spent a year trying to figure out why she was having strange sensation in her legs and feet. She was falling without explanation and unsure what to do. She had been in a car accident in 2021 and thought perhaps that might have had something to do with it. She had gone through test after test, but everything was returning as clear. Until August 26, 2023, just 3 days after her 43rd birthday, she received the news that would change her life and the lives of everyone who loves her. She had ALS.

From that point on things she has been trying to get things in order as her body fights her. She has been unable to do the job she loves anymore as her ability to use her legs has all but ceased and she is now wheelchair bound. In the months since she is having trouble using her arms, her hands are contracted, eating is a struggle and her husband and kids are her caretakers. This is not the life any of us imagined for such a vibrant, fun, fast-paced caretaker. This is happening faster than anticipated. We need help. We need to convert her bathroom so she can stay in the home with her family. Our mother and her mother-in-law have come to assist. We have been working with home health care to get her assistance in the home so she can stay with her family for her last years and months and be with them and avoid long-term care as she is young, and this is already so hard to bear, removing her from the home right now is not an option, especially for Thomas, her autistic son.

Being able to have Corinne stay home absolutely requires getting to and from Duke Medical Center. Her husband is a hard-working electrician who is struggling to convert the bathroom and renting a medical van every time Corinne needs to go to appointments. The ALS foundation assisted with a motorized wheelchair but we need help with a van. We need to convert her van, or have one donated, or something to this effect. Time is of the essence as ALS spares no one the luxury of a timeline that we can count on. Unfortunately for Corinne, treatments like Radicava were unsuccessful but we are not giving up hope. She has been placed on a new regimen and it requires checkups and therapy and we are all in. This family needs help now.

Can you please help this family? Can you please share her message? This is someone who has helped countless number of women and others through some of their darkest days. We need you and others to help her and her family through their darkest hours now. Please help us get her what she needs to be comfortable and fight this awful disease.