October 2018 | Vol. 18 Iss. 10
FREE MURRAY CITY COUNCILMAN, FORMER BANK VICE PRESIDENT, former LDS bishop, and MS patient Brett Hales hopes for legalized medicinal cannabis By Shaun Delliskave | s.delliskave@mycityjournals.com
W
hen first meeting Murray City Councilman Brett Hales, you are immediately pulled forward with a powerful handshake. District 5 ’s two-term city councilman’s grip communicates two things: he is genuinely glad to see you and he is in control of his multiple sclerosis (MS) and not the other way around. The chronic neuromuscular disease has plagued Hales since 2001. “I woke up and I remember I couldn’t move my legs. I went from doctor to doctor trying to figure it out. I did not want to be diagnosed with MS,” said Hales. After four years of denial, he accepted his neurologist’s diagnosis and began treatment. At the time of the disease’s onset, Hales was in the prime of life. He was vice president of Cyprus Credit Union, bishop of his LDS ward, a husband and father of five. MS commonly strikes people in middle age. The neurodegenerative disease attacks the body’s nerve cells’ myelin coating, disabling or aggravating various body functions. The disease can dissipate as fast it comes on and then relapse or in some cases cause death. Celebrities like Teri Garr and Montel Williams have had the disease for decades, while others like Richard Pryor and Annette Funicello have succumbed to it. To treat the disease, his doctor first put him on a steroid blast and then chemotherapy to attack the disease. After a year and a half on chemo, he was still having painful muscle spasms and couldn’t swallow. As Hales’ condition Continued on page 5...
Brett Hales conducts a city council meeting. (Shaun Delliskave/City Journals)
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