Matthew Horowitz (left) and his father Michael Horowitz.Supplied
The organizer: Matthew Horowitz
The pitch: Raising $100,000
The cause: ALS Canada
Michael Horowitz had always led a healthy lifestyle, so when he began feeling some pain in one of his hands last year he thought it was a pinched nerve.
After months of tests, Michael was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a neurological disease that attacks motor neurons in the brain and eventually causes loss of movement.
Michael’s son, Matthew, has felt helpless as he has watched his 58-year old father battle the disease over the past 18 months. “I wanted to do something. I couldn’t just sit around and do nothing,” recalled Matthew, 28, who works for a technology firm in Toronto.
When he found out about a cycling event that raises money for the ALS Society of Canada, Michael decided to sign up and pull in as many donations as possible. The event, on Sept. 24, is called the Revolution Ride and it involves cycling either 12, 40 or 90 kilometres in Dundas, Ont. Matthew hopes to raise $100,000 and he has already topped $67,000. The money will help fund the society’s community-based support services and advocacy work.
Matthew sees the ride as an important way to increase awareness about ALS, especially among men, who are 20 per cent more likely to contract the illness. “ALS is not as well known as other causes,” he said. “So being able to raise awareness is huge, because it’s a very rare disease.”
He added that it took doctors seven months to diagnose his father, who immediately wanted to know how long it would take for the disease to progress.
“Usually the first year it’s very slow,” Matthew said. Sometimes it can take between two and five years before there is a noticeable deterioration in muscle response. But eventually the muscles break down and someone living with ALS loses the ability to walk, talk, eat, swallow and eventually breathe.
Matthew isn’t a big cyclist but he’s committed to participating in the Revolution Ride this year and for many years to come. “My goal now is to raise as much money and as much awareness as I can, and hopefully have a future without ALS.”