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ALS, the disease behind the fad By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Dean Payne thinks it will be only a matter of time before he develops a debilitating, fatal disease. The disease Payne expects is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Payne, a Sycamore resident, has lost 20 family members to the disease, including his grandfather, father and brother. Two of his family members currently are living with ALS. “When I get up in the
Ice bucket challenge has raised awareness, lots of cash morning,” Payne said. “it’s a great day.” Payne was amazed when he started seeing people dumping buckets of frigid ice water over their heads to raise awareness – and money – to combat the disease that has plagued his family for decades. By Friday, the viral challenge sweeping social media had generated millions of donations for the ALS Association, bringing in more than
$100 million. More than money, the philanthropic trend has spurred more awareness about a disease that affects as many as 30,000 people nationwide. Julie Sharpe, the executive director of the ALS Association’s Chicago chapter said during the same time last year, the organization received $2.7 million in donations. The flurry of money has undoubtedly come as a result of the ALS ice bucket chal-
lenge, she said. The money will go toward funding research, providing care and services and advocacy and education for the incurable disease. “It will be seen as a real game-changer for this cause,” Sharpe said. A French neurologist first discovered ALS in 1869, but it didn’t receive international attention until 1939, when Hall of Fame baseball player Lou Gehrig was diagnosed.
Gehrig, whose durability earned him the nickname “The Iron Horse,” died at age 37, two years after his diagnosis. Today, most people still die within two to five years, Sharpe said. According to the ALS Association, motor neurons, which reach from the brain to the spinal cord, and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body, progressively deteriorate in patients with ALS. As neurons die,
the brain loses the ability to control muscle movement. Patients in the later stages of the disease could become completely paralyzed. At 53, Payne is almost the oldest living man in his family. His grandfather died 50 years ago at the age of 53. Payne’s father died at 46. Payne’s brother, Dave, died at 36. He paused a moment when thinking about seeing his brother suffer through the disease.
See ALS, page A6
Parents of ill boy fight extradition from Spain
‘Fondly, Mar’
By DANICA KIRKA and MARIA CHENG The Associated Press
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Second-grade teacher Jen McCormick passes out library books that her class checked out earlier Friday at West Elementary in Sycamore. McCormick worked closely with former Principal Mary Currie, who was an advocate of literacy in the classroom. Currie lost her battle with cancer in April 2013 at age 59, but West Elementary teachers say she has left a legacy.
West Elementary teachers plan memorials to beloved principal By JESSI HAISH jhaish@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Jennifer McCormick remembers very well bumbling around as a new teacher more than 20 years ago, making messes and trying to get things right. In her first year, she attempted a paper mache project in West Elementary School, 240 S. Fair St., which started to go wrong. A goopy mess built up right in front of the office of Principal Mary Currie, ruining the floor. “I was trying to clean it up, and [Currie] was on her hands and knees trying to clean it up, too, and she didn’t get mad. She just knew,” McCormick
said. “Just like when you have a kid who needs somebody to lead them along, she knew I was like the kid of the staff. I was younger than everybody else, and I was doing screwups like that constantly. She just kept nurturing the good parts, even of those mistakes, just like a good teacher.” McCormick said she feels like lessons she learned from Currie years ago are still put into action with her own classes to this day. Currie lost her battle with cancer in April 2013 at age 59, but West Elementary teachers said she has left a legacy that has touched every building in
See PRINCIPAL, page A6
A rocking chair dedicated to former principal Mary Currie sits in the reading corner of the library Friday at West Elementary in Sycamore.
“If you think about the term leading by example, she could have been the poster child for that.” Rene Hoeve, English Language Learner teacher
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LONDON – The parents say they want to give their 5 year-old-boy with a brain tumor the best chance to live with a revolutionary new treatment they learned about on the Internet. Their British hospital said the boy has a 70 percent to 80 percent chance of survival with the treatment it offers, and it’s the parents who are putting the child at risk. Britain has become riveted by the case of little Ashya King, whose parents plucked him from a hospital in southern England and fled to Spain amid a dispute over treatment – with British justice close on the family’s heels. Brett and Naghemeh King signaled Monday they would fight extradition, defying doctors and the legal system as a Brit- Ashya King ish court considers a ruling on forcing the family to come home. “I’m not coming back to England if I cannot give him the treatment I want, which is proper treatment,” Brett King said as he cradled the child in a video posted before his arrest. “I just want positive results for my son.” The Kings are seeking a new type of proton beam radiation therapy that typically costs at least $33,000. The Southampton General Hospital said that more conventional methods have a very high chance of succeeding. It said that while proton beam therapy is effective for some tumors, in other cases “there isn’t evidence that this is a beneficial treatment.” The family fled to Spain in hopes of selling a property to obtain enough cash for treatment in the Czech Republic or the United States. Police pursued them. Prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for an offence of cruelty to a person under the age of 16 years, hours after the Southampton hospital realized their patient was gone. British authorities traveled to Spain to question the couple. Assistant Chief Constable Chris Shead, of Hampshire Constabulary, has said he would rather be criticized for being “proactive” rather than trying to explain later “why a child has lost his life.” The hospital’s medical director, Dr. Michael Marsh, issued a statement late Monday saying that the treatment was discussed with the family. He put the chances Ashya surviving under the hospital’s treatment at 70 percent to 80 percent after five years. He expressed sadness that communication with the family had broken down and that “for whatever reason they have lost confidence in us.”
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