Help me survive and cope with motor neurone disease-ALS

Hello, I'm Luke Prodromou. Many of you will know me as a teacher of English, a trainer of teachers, a conference participant, an author of textbooks and handbooks for teachers, and as a speaker at numerous conferences and webinars on language teaching and Shakespeare, in particular.

I have been a language teacher since 1973 and travelled to 25 countries around the world, delivering talks on language teaching and education. My focus was always on building self-esteem, respect, and success in the student.

I have been awarded a lifetime achievement award for contributions to English language teaching.

My career as a teacher and amateur actor, from which many of you may know me, was cut short about 7 years ago when I was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neurone disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease (LGD). The condition became notorious through the life and death of Stephen Hawking, the great cosmologist, who lived with it for 50 years.

This disease is a rare terminal neurodegenerative disorder that results in the progressive loss of both upper and lower motor neurones that normally control muscle movements. MND typically continues until the abilities to eat, speak, move, and lastly, breathe, are all lost.

So far, I have kept my diagnosis strictly personal and tried to continue my professional activities online, particularly through delivering webinars on language teaching and English literature. I have continued trying to overcome and conceal my increasing disability. The situation has reached a point now where I find it difficult to perform everyday actions, even simple ones, without assistance. I'm finding everyday life increasingly more difficult to cope with, both mentally and physically, and my financial resources, as a result, are being stretched to the limit by the need to pay numerous carers to come into my home several times a day to help me perform everyday activities (e.g., getting out of bed, going to the bathroom, eating). This is a huge expense, as is the need to buy increasingly sophisticated and costly equipment to facilitate my movement around the house, and, on rare occasions, when I go outside. above all, the cost of medication and medical treatment, and a possible operation for cure demand, enormous, financial resources, which I simply do not have.

The funds I have available are, sadly, finite. I live in a rented apartment, and I have been officially classified as 90% disabled.My financial resources are woefully inadequate to meet my needs.

To put things bluntly, and with painful honesty, I fear impoverishment and having to face the horrors of a devastating disease in an old people's home, away from friends and family. This, to me, is a nightmarish prospect. As my physical pain increases, and my movements become more restricted, the mental strain becomes unbearable. To give you a vivid example, I have not had a good night's sleep for the last 3 months, and I'm simply exhausted.

That's my basic situation. I know I'm not the only sufferer, but I have tried, in my life, to give the best I could to my fellow teachers and pupils. And all I ask is for some help to relieve the terror of this incurable disease as I grow older. The money collected will be used to cover the necessary expenses to afford the innovative stem cell medical treatment in Canada, which may help me survive and be able to pay my carers, doctors,

afford equipment, and all other expenses that make life decent.

If you wish to see some of my recent work on poetry, Shakespeare, and language teaching, you may visit my YouTube Channel.

Thank you.

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