ALS is a degenerative disease which progresses very rapidly and destroys the brain's ability to communicate with one's muscles, usually starting in the arms and legs, and ending with the lungs and heart. I had minor leg problems in April, and was using a walker by the end of May. By summer, I had borrowed a scooter from the ALS Association to get around, but the time has come for a wheelchair. The kind of wheelchair I need - one that is adaptable to my changing and continually degenerating physical capabilities - is about $25, 000, but insurance will cover at least 80% of it. Traveling in a vehicle, though, requires a van converted to accommodate a wheelchair. Those cost around $30,000 - $40,000, which insurance doesn't cover. In fact, the economic story of ALS is that managing the disease costs very little, largely because there's no viable treatment, but maintaining a life is extremely costly, because it requires fairly new technology that enables the ALS sufferer to remain mobile, to communicate, and eventually, to eat and breathe. I'm lucky to live at a time in history in which technology exists to make mobility and communication possible throughout the course of this disease. I'm luckier still to be connected to so many people who have asked how they can help. Over the next couple of years, I'll need, and ask for, all kinds of help from many different people. The least comfortable, but most pressing, type of help I need to ask for is money, so here it is: if you can contribute to this project to aid my mobility, I will sincerely appreciate it.