Support Bruce's ALS Care Needs and Carol's Cancer battle

Before I start, I want to remind you of the summer of 2014. This was a time when the Ice Bucket challenge absolutely took-off and went mega-viral. Everyone did the ice bucket challenge, and Pete Frates of Boston College Baseball fame, was an instant hero and inspiration to myself and millions around the world. He was diagnosed with ALS at just 27 years old and yet never gave up.

I had the fortune of meeting him at Fenway Park and at his home when I worked for BC, and it was truly the first time I really heard of ALS, never mind knew anyone with this often-misunderstood disease.

With that stated... I ask for your compassion to help my parents in the same way ordinary people and strangers came together for Pete's and countless other families impacted by ALS but also by cancer.

My name is Jeff Alderson, and my parents are Bruce and Carol Alderson. The below photo is one of the last I have where my dad is standing but able to be in a picture with me and my 10-month old son at the time. This picture is in my truck on my visor and is one of my favorite pictures of the three generations of Alderson boys.

In July 2021, following over a year of mysterious and increasing weakness and muscle wasting, my dad was diagnosed sporadic (randomly occurring), non-bulbar (peripheral loss of function and wasting) ALS. Before the diagnosis, he was a person who was always using his hands - first to paint and illustrate unrivaled technical marine illustrations, but also as a builder and wood crafter and someone who was able to fix anything and greet and shake hands with anyone in my minds eye - the kind of ethic you idealize in a father. He is the kind of person that would go out of his way to greet a stranger or meet people for the first time with a demeanor that felt like, as a kid, that everyone had the same value.

Following a series of steady declines in motor function, falls, and frequent hospital trips, he lost most strength in his legs. I remember the last time he was able to "walk" when coming to our house, and I recall the shock I had practically shouldering him up the stairs for Christmas breakfast in 2022.

After a severe hospital trip in March 2023, he moved fully to a motorized wheelchair, and later that year would move to a fully mechanical reclining wheelchair.

All of the adaptations and mechanical assistance devices would not have been possible without several organizations providing grants and various forms of funding for items like a hospital bed and mattress, non-invasive breather, hoyer lift, wider door frames or doors, outdoor ramps, slide boards, and other medical equipment and material that made everyday life easier, but nonetheless still difficult and in a constant crisis.

He was able to come to our house to meet his granddaughter for the first time in May of 2023, with great difficulty, but with the fortune to still hold her assisted in his arm cradle.

My mom would be on the phone constantly looking for grants, and I would be seeking out resources that I knew from my time working at Boston College and elsewhere with connections to ALS and the right organizations and people to connect to.

In late September 2023, my mom went into the hospital with acute pain and the inability to eat or digest. After a month of testing and moving to three different hospitals, she was diagnosed with Stage IV Urothelial cell bladder cancer - with a tumor that grew out of a kidney ureter and expanded into her abdomen, wrapping itself around her duodenum, and blocking her stomach from processing food.

She was given 6 months as a prognosis initially, and in the mean time, I had sprung into action to find emergency-level coverage for my father who would ultimately be living in their house alone for an unknown amount of time. Between caretakers that I hired out of pocket and family and friends visiting and checking in, he was covered.

Fortunately, my mother was blessed with quite possibly the best team of doctors at Rhode Island hospital and they went to work with an aggressive plan to counteract the cancer and to prevent it from spreading further.

By December 2023, she was able to return home, but was severely diminished and weak, without the ability to eat food.

In a true miracle, she was able to eat around Easter of 2024, albeit small and light fare, but given the fact that her original prognosis was 6 months, and instead she was able to eat food at all was truly a testament to her doctors coming up with a life-sustaining plan of chemo and immunotherapy.

As of 2025, my mother's cancer is nearly destroyed, but she'll need to be on a mix of chemo and immunotherapy for the remainder of her life to keep the cancer at bay. She'll always be a fall risk and so cannot physically be my fathers' caregiver.

ALS robs the patient of their ability to move, often in bulbar (verbal and trunk related ALS) the voice/speech and breathing are the first to be impacted. In non-bulbar, the peripheral limbs are the first to lose function and to waste away.

By now, my dad struggles to breathe during the night, and caretakers are the only way he can be comfortable.

This close and constant Caretaking is not covered by any form of medicare, medicaid, or other health insurance. My parents have spent nearly $100,000 in expenses for just caretaking in the last 12 months, and are now running out of money to keep just the caretaking available and food in the fridge. Your donations will go directly to helping them keep their house.

Despite being frugal during their younger lives, going yardsailing in the nearby area instead of buying new, and always and still shopping supermarket sales, they are in dire need to keep the caretaking costs and the medical bills and house in operating order.

I'm asking for your generosity in any amount - this is a desperate time for many - in helping pay for bills to help get by as the caretaking increases and the continued function of my father decreases, and my mother's weakened state due to the ongoing chemo and immunotherapy.

This will help keep food on the table, the lights and heat on, and help support other needs to adapt the house or support his breathing and day-to-day life with this orphan disease.

I thank you in advance for helping.

Sincerely,

Jeff Alderson