Country singer Ty Herndon has teamed up with former NFL fullback Kevin Turner in a bid to raise the social recognition and potentially garner more research and treatment funding for ALS. This debilitating disease has become linked recently to athletes that have been exposed to repeated traumatic head injury (i.e. concussion). Turner played for the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles for about eight years and was diagnosed early this past summer with ALS, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. This debilitating disease, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease in the U.S., is a form of motor neuron disease. What this means in lay terms is that the disease affects the brain’s ability to communicate with and to control muscles in the body. ALS is progressive and almost always fatal.
ALS causes muscle weakness and a general atrophy of the body and musculature. The atrophied muscles, after weakening by the disease, cause affected individuals to lose voluntary motor control. Higher cognitive function (speaking, reading, etc.) are generally spared by the disease.
At a recent ALS benefit concert, Ty Herndon and Kevin Turner were introduced and the two men discussed a partnership. They decided to use the song “Journey On” as the signature song for The Kevin Turner Foundation.
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