My friend Alex from church was diagnosed with ALS a year ago. He’s currently in a wheelchair.
It does seem counter to all of the examples listed just in this thread. They may be underestimating numbers, and this campaign may end up being key to adjusting their estimates.
Don’t you know that if it is popular it must be horrible since all of the sheeple are into it. Like McDonald’s, White Bread, Popular Music, and TV shows. Big Bang got worse and worse apparently as more people started watching it.
I think it has more to do with the fact that most people who are diagnosed with the disease die very quickly. Like, between two and five years.
Something like 5,500 people are diagnosed with it every year, but only 30,000 people at any given time are living with the disease.
I always confuse it with ALD, which ultimately does the same thing to you. I guess I should go learn up on the differences.
Not any more. As a signing bonus for Masahiro Tanaka Lou Gehrig’s Disease was renamed* Masahiro Tanaka Disease*.
My wife has done considerable work helping the patient organizations here in Taiwan and in Japan, including serving as a translator at conferences. She knows many of them.
My former brother-in-law, now deceased.
I’m surprised at you, Namkcalb. Did you think the charity in the ice-water dousing was a joke?
I just watched a documentary in the spring about Jason Becker. I think it was called Not Dead Yet. Amazing story.
I know two people with ALS. One very advanced, the other only recently diagnosed.
In all fairness, it seems like the bulk of examples are people the posters who mentioned them could have already told you had ALS, without the ice bucket thing. If all the people participating in this thread could name one thing they’ve learned about ALS due to the ice bucket challenge, I’d buy that it’s an unequivocal success at raising awareness. As it is, it’s an unequivocal success at raising money, but of fairly dubious success at raising awareness.
This is what I was about to post. I’d say that what the OP’s questions are really measuring is how successful the ice bucket challenge has been at raising awareness of the ice bucket challenge. I know what the disorder is and could easily name at least one famous person who had it (since in the US the disorder is commonly referred to using this person’s name), but I’ve known that for years. I haven’t learned the names of any other people who have/had this disorder from media coverage of the ice bucket challenge, although I could name a few of the celebrities who’ve dumped cold water on themselves.
My stepfather. 
(I was about to nominate this thread for “most misspellings this month,” but it turns out it’s acceptable to write “neurone” in the UK, so that takes care if about half the misspellings!)
British journalists Jill Tweedie and Glen Worsnip.
I don’t see that awareness of ALS = knowing the name of someone with ALS. A better question might be something like, What do you know about ALS that you didn’t before this campaign? or Is ALS more in the forefront of your consciousness than it was before this campaign?
Nothing;
And
No.
Same person I was going to say. When I made my donation I did it in his honor.
In November 1996 I went to a benefit for him in Chicago. Over 12 hours of guitar shredding (Tony MacAlpine, Dave Uhrich, Marty Friedman, Zakk Wylde and Vinnie Moore were some of the performers). The show was headlined by Eddie Van Halen, Steve Lukather, Billy Sheehan and Pat Torpey. Ever since then I’ve kept an eye on his condition.
Former University of Alabama and NFL player Kevin Turner.
I knew of former New Orleans Saint Steve Gleason, famous for the blocked punt against the Falcons in the first game back in the Superdome after Katrina.
Pete Frates, the guy who started this whole thing, is from my home town, so…him. Also, my high school homeroom teacher and soccer coach. Beverly, MA has given me two really good reasons to put cold water on my head.
Michael Zaslow- was an old-time soap opera actor, diagnosed with ALS in the 90s. He was a good actor, but eventually he couldn’t hide it anymore and he was fired from his long-time role when he couldn’t deliver his lines. He wanted to keep working so he could retain his insurance and benefits, so he put out the word that he still wanted acting work. Another soap opera, One Life to Live, picked him up and cast him as a guy with ALS.
He used a computer setup a la Stephen Hawking to voice his lines, and became quite the fan favorite. He stayed in his role right to the end about a year later. He was only in his mid-50s.