On July fourth, 1939, a young man gave a speech that would be remembered for years and that would leave a long-lasting legacy. The man who gave this speech was not a politician or anything like that; he was a baseball player. The young man played for the New York Yankees and his name was Lou Gehrig. The speech has been named the “Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth Speech,” and it marked the end of a lengthy and accomplished career.

In his renowned speech, Gehrig revealed that he would be retiring from baseball because he was diagnosed with a crippling disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS for short.

ALS, or to many people Lou Gehrig’s disease because of the historic athlete, causes the muscles of ones body to slowly lose the ability to move. Within years, a person can go from being a relatively healthy being to a shell of a person that can no longer move or eat on his or her own. Most end up on ventilators and with feeding tubes.
Sadly there is no cure for this awful condition. In fact, only some cases have been linked to genetics and the rest have not been given a cause, making it impossible to detect. It cannot be prevented or foreseen, with a few exceptions in families where genetics plays a part.

Research is ongoing and there are many foundations that collect money to help research for a cure. In the United States, the main foundation is called the ALS Association and they research the disease.

In 2014, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge started as a fundraiser to benefit ALS research. Participants were nominated and they are given twenty-four hours to choose between two options: they could either donate money to aid research or they could dump a bucket of ice cold water on their head to promote awareness. The challenge took off in many countries with countless participants.

Famous figures started to participate and soon, everyone was either nominated or participated. Every day, there would be another person accepting the challenge and showing support for ALS research. People started to look into the disease and the movement accomplished its goal to spread awareness.

I recently searched for the highest frequency searches of 2014 and the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was on the list. That was according to Google, one of the most used and valued search engines in the world. ALS became something that the public became familiar with because of this challenge.

For a disease to go from being rare and almost hidden to well known and supported, there is hope. Now people know about a disease that they previously did not. Money flowed in from donations around the world and hopefully the money from the challenge can be beneficial to research for a cure.

When Lou Gehrig was alive, many people did not know what ALS was or what it entailed. Now people know. They know how crippling it is and how important it is that we find a cure. I am sure that if Mr. Gehrig were alive, he would be happy with the progress that society has made as a whole when it comes to ALS and its knowledge about it. Someday, maybe those that survived the disease that killed a legend can say the “Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth” speech.