MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – Members of two families affected by ALS, commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, visited the WSFA 12 News studios Thursday to tell their stories. Before the segment ended, the cover was torn off a ceremonial check worth $115,000 in support of those affected by the deadly illness.
Kristen Shaw Budd, who recently lost her father to ALS, joined Kerry and Tanja Goode on WSFA’s midday community events show “Alabama Live!” to discuss the disease, officially known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. It’s a fatal type of motor neuron disease that causes progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Kerry was a football player at the University of Alabama before jumping to the NFL where he played and eventually coached. He learned of his diagnosis in 2015. That same year, he founded The Goode Foundation to support ALS research and those affected by the disease.
Budd said her late father “was one of the biggest Alabama fans I’ve ever known” and says he was connected to the Goodes by a mutual friend, “and Kerry has been such an encouragement to our family and my dad throughout his ALS battle, and we are just so grateful for their family.”
The disease doesn’t just take a physical and emotional toll on families. There’s also a financial toll.
“It averages to about $250,000 out of pocket expenses for a family to have to deal with,” explained Tanja Goode. “That’s a lot of money, so that’s how we are, and why we are here, The Goode Foundation.”
Budd said when her father, Ronnie Shaw, learned of his diagnosis, a dozen of his lifelong friends came together to encourage him and to raise money to help him. That’s where the idea for Run With Ronnie came from. It raised considerable amounts of money to help fight the disease.
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