As many of you know, our beloved Kathy Brackenridge began to show signs of an illness affecting her feet and ability to walk in the summer of 2020. After months of searching for answers and treatments, to no avail, in July 2021 Kathy ultimately received the diagnosis that she was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a devastating and incurable neurological disease. In the last 10 months, as this new reality set in, and we put everything we had into our mission to find and arrange for the very best doctors and care possible, it became clear that the overwhelming expense of managing a disease like ALS is a blow few families can manage on their own. In the spirit of Kathy’s own boundlessly strong and optimistic outlook, the extended Brackenridge family has started a Go Fund Me campaign with the goal of raising $150,000 to combat the effects of this terrible illness for as long as it takes. It is our hope that our community who know and love her will come together to consider even the smallest contribution toward this effort. Our sole focus now is to provide Kathy with the best comfort and quality of life possible, and to remind her that she is not alone in this battle. 

Kathy recently started using a new state-of-the art wheelchair made specifically to meet mobility needs associated with ALS.  

Kathy has been a lifelong hard-working professional in art, retail, auctions and estates; she is a loving and doting wife to Guy, mother to Kathryn, step mother to Kirsten, grandmother to Bish and Kirsten's three boys - Gavin, George and Whit -  sister to Margot and the late Bish, daughter to MF and Bish McDonnell; and a wonderful and supportive friend and relative to so many. This diagnosis permanently altered every single aspect of her life, in an instant, but has never diminished her innately loving, fun and positive nature.

Kathy’s spirit and attitude remain remarkably strong, upbeat, and inspiring — no surprise — but the financial and logistical requirements of dealing with ALS are simply overwhelming. Her needs for a raft of medications — including expensive off-label experimental drugs not yet approved by the FDA and not covered by insurance (her best treatment option, no alternative)— adjustments to every single aspect of her and Guy’s home to make it disability-accessible, daily nurse visits, physical and psychological therapies, motorized wheelchairs and other needed but costly equipment for respiration and other, have already amounted to expenses far beyond their ability to afford. Round-the- clock home care is an inevitable and certain need, and soon, but comes with a price exceeding our means, and with little-to-no Medicare coverage.  
Kathy with her girls Kirsten and Kathryn (grandson Bish) just days after diagnosis, Summer, 2021. 

ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is an unimaginably debilitating, progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. ALS causes motor neurons to degenerate over time until the brain can no longer initiate and control muscle movement and those suffering ultimately lose the ability to speak, eat, move and breathe without assistance. There is no yet cure for ALS.

For Kathy, disease progression began in the lower half of her body and has rendered her unable to walk or stand. She needs assistance in all the basic daily tasks most of us take for granted. It has created an enormous amount of changes and challenges in her and Guy’s life, compounded by the fact that as she was receiving treatment for her earliest symptoms, she lost her job of over a decade. This effectively ended her cherished career and primary source of income while disqualifying her from disability support at the most inopportune time imaginable.

Kathy now lives life from a wheelchair. Guy is and has been her primary caregiver since the beginning of her symptoms (placing physical stresses on him that have also required urgent attention  — an exacerbated heart condition, hernia surgery), and therefore has also been unable to work to earn income. But he has remained heroically strong and devoted, attending to Kathy’s every need.
Kathy and Guy thank all of their loved ones for the unending love and support. 

Living with ALS is all about quality of life management, to experience each day with as much comfort and support as is available, and to remain eligible for possible experimental treatments that offer any hope of slowing the effects of this disease. Despite the various wonderful organizations that provide support and community to those living with ALS, the funds simply don’t exist to give Kathy her best fighting chance to manage this disease as well as possible, in order to live as long as possible. 

We as a family have all come together to care for Kathy, to chase down every opportunity and contact in the medical world that we can, to arrange for the best medical attention, and to give her everything she needs, every day. The outpouring of love and support is what is getting Kathy through this and we are grateful for every day we have with her. 

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for considering any amount you’re able to contribute to helping Kathy live with ALS.

With Love & Gratitude,
– Kathryn, Kirsten, Gavin, and the Brackenridge family.

A Caring Bridge site has been established for updates on Kathy's health , status and disease progression. Thanks for following along.