Bryan Szymczak has always run toward danger. For 26 years, he fought fires in cities across Illinois, until an ALS diagnosis forced him into early retirement.
It began with a weakness in his right thumb, which he chalked up to cold weather. Then he found he couldn’t use his right hand to zip up his duty boots. A persistent twitch in his right tricep raised further alarm. After he was referred to Dr. Robert Kalb at the Les Turner ALS Center at Northwestern Medicine, Bryan was diagnosed with ALS.
He was shocked. And, with the courage of a first responder, he decided to face it head-on.
“As soon as I was diagnosed, I wanted to get on clinical trials,” says Bryan. “It’s the only hope that people with the disease have. It might help me slow the progression for a couple years. But hopefully it helps researchers know what’s working for the next guy.”
This holiday season, your gift to the Les Turner ALS Foundation will increase access to clinical trials and multidisciplinary care for people living with ALS like Bryan – and you’ll create hope for better treatments, longer lives, and a world free of ALS.
“There’s not a minute of a day where I’m not thinking about it.”
Michelle Shaker, LCSW, a support services coordinator from the Les Turner ALS Foundation, helps Bryan and his wife Jackie coordinate care and talk through the challenges of living with ALS.
“Michelle is awesome,” says Bryan. “Honestly, after I get off the phone with her, I feel good. I talk more because I open up to her about the way I’m feeling or questions I have.”
“She is great for resources and making sure that we’re getting the best experience and the best care and getting our questions answered,” says Jackie. “She truly cares about our family. If we ask for help, she’ll go out of her way to do it for us.”
Your gift to the Les Turner ALS Foundation allows us to support families at no cost with care coordination meetings, support groups, grants and equipment loans, and much more. With backgrounds in fields like nursing, counseling, social work, and speech-language pathology, our team is there every step of the way.
“I want the next guy to get the benefits he deserves.”
The health risks associated with being a firefighter are serious. Bryan is working to get ALS covered as a duty-related illness in Illinois, like cancer and heart and lung diseases are, so fire service members diagnosed with ALS will be able to retire with a full pension.
“If I knew this was going to happen to me, I wouldn’t change my career path,” says Bryan. “We all knew the risk going into it. But I never thought it was going to be this quick.”
In the meantime, Bryan and his family are focused on what’s important – and making the most of every day. They held a successful fundraiser for the Les Turner ALS Foundation over the summer, with more to come.
“It’s the experience we’ve had with Les Turner,” says Bryan. “We want to give as much as we can to helping the next person and help fund research, so maybe in two or three or four years from now, people can live with the disease and not have to worry.”
In this season of giving, please make a donation to support ALS care and research at the Les Turner ALS Foundation. Let’s step up for first responders like Bryan and families living with ALS throughout our community. Because when lives are on the line, they don’t hesitate – and neither do we.
