As a trained engineer and Stanford PhD, I have enjoyed being part of the "Tech" world for over 30 years: First at General Motors working on electric & hybrid electric vehicle R&D and now with Kulicke & Soffa Industries running a global semiconductor equipment business--our equipment produces about half of the world's computer chips!

After a Google search suggested my loss of grip strength, muscle cramps and twitches could be Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS / Lou Gehrig's disease, on November 12, 2020, I received the mind-numbing ALS diagnosis. I am an otherwise healthy, active, 54-year-old father of three. I did not see this coming at all.

Amazingly, shortly after my diagnosis, I met the love of my life (and now wife) Andrea, and we are working on forging a life together while battling this terrible disease for ourselves and for current and future persons with ALS.

Through lots of research, sage advice, and some good luck, I ended up under the care of Dr. Merit Cudkowicz, head of the world-leading Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital, and we embarked on my ALS journey and battle together. Our co-developed strategy is to hit my ALS with a cocktail of the best approved, experimental, and supplemental therapies available to hold off disease progression and "stay in the fight" until truly effective treatments emerge from the research pipeline. Fortunately, so far, my progression has been quite slow (but not zero. . .yet) aided by my excellent care and advanced therapies made available through the Healey Center team.

Upon diagnosis, ALS patients like me immediately become acutely aware of the agonizing lack of truly effective ALS therapies let alone cures. Even worse, most ALS patients are excluded from participation in clinical trials due to their disease progression or other medical factors so cannot get access promising new experimental therapies.

Having realized the critical need for expanded access to advance therapies for ALS patients, I joined a long tradition of ALS patient-advocates to team up with the Healey Center to fundraise towards establishing widespread ALS Expanded Access Protocol Programs to make these promising experimental therapies broadly available to ALS patients ineligible for clinical trials. #DrugsInBodies

Please join us to support this incredibly important cause.

I deeply thank you for your compassion and support.

With love, purpose, and hope,

Shawn Sarbacker

shawn@techvsals.org

TechVsALS

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