"ALS: TRAGEDY TO TRANSFORMATION"

“ALS: TRAGEDY TO TRANSFORMATION”
TEDX TALK BY ZOE LALJI

I chose to do my Neuro Note on ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and I discovered a Ted Talk, “ALS: TRAGEDY TO TRANSFORMATION” by Zoe Lalji. Her Ted Talk was about how her family navigated their new life after her father was diagnosed with ALS. Zoe and her family were very fortunate to have a hard-working father, who was a dentist and entrepreneur—he owned eight dental practices. He was a great role-model and family man. Sometimes the monotony of everyday life causes us to take some things for granted. ALS, which is very rare, caught the Lalji family by surprise. They began to slowly watch this neurodegenerative disease take away most of the father’s ability to function in everyday life. Eventually, he even lost his ability to speak and had to use a sound communication device. Zoe and her family were secretive about the diagnosis in the beginning; at school her friends had no idea what was transpiring at home. She fell into an “emotional paralysis” (Lalji, 2018) and isolated herself in the bedroom, away from her dad. According to Zoe, it was hard to watch her father be in so much pain without being able to do anything about it. This all changed when Zoe realized that the moments she was hiding away from the pain of her father’s diagnosis, these were moments not spent with him. After breaking down in her father’s lap, she realized that being present with her father and showing love was healing for them both. Ultimately, Zoe became an outspoken ALS advocate and created a foundation to bring awareness about the disease.

After watching the Ted Talk, I visited the ALS Association website and learned a few interesting facts about the disease. Most people between the ages of 40 and 70 are diagnosed with ALS, with it being 20% higher in men than women. Also, about 90% of all ALS cases occur without family history (The ALS Association, 2020). I chose ALS because it is a disease that I know very little about, although I hear about it often. I remember the “Ice Bucket Challenge” on social media that was geared towards awareness. I also remember watching the movie about Stephen Hawking and not fully understanding why his physical body declined quickly. Zoe Lilji’s Ted Talk expressed how her family, like many others who are a part of the ALS community, battled against sadness and despair and found out what was really important in life—Love. What almost broke her down completely made her a much more stronger and vocal advocate for helping others with ALS.

Lalji, Z. (2018, November 7). Zoe Lalji: ALS: Tragedy to Transformation [Video]. TED Conferences. https://alsheroes.com/about/our-story/

The ALS Association. (2020). Who Gets ALS? Retrieved July 17, 2020, from https://www.als.org/understanding-als/who-gets-als