Sandy's Smilers ready to fight against ALS

September 4, 2008Recommend


By DIANA NEWTON dnewton@pioneerlocal.com
Even during her worst moments with a devastating disease, Sandy Rubinstein kept on smiling.

And now -- four years after her death from ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) -- her smile lives on through Sandy's Smilers, a team of loved ones fighting for a cure.



Deerfield's Donna Price (second from left) will participate in the Chicago ALS walk with her husband Marc, daughter Lauren, and friends Arleen and Alex Goldberg. Her team, Sandy's Smilers, was created to honor her mother and her uncle, who both died from ALS.
(Suzanne Tennant/Staff Photographer)

Donna Price, of Deerfield, and about 20 other family members and friends will join together on Sept. 13 to honor Rubinstein -- Price's mother -- by participating in the ALS Walk4Life at Montrose Harbor. Proceeds benefit the Les Turner ALS Foundation.

The team name -- Sandy's Smilers -- came about during the family's first walk. Rubinstein, of Skokie, was on that walk, pushed in a wheelchair by family members. She liked the name Sandy's Smilers so they've kept it for every walk since.

"She wanted people to remember her smiling and positive and happy," said Price.

ALS Walk4Life typically draws 5,000 people and is the country's biggest event for the ALS community, said Beth Richman, a spokesman.

"This event is so moving and emotional and celebratory because so little attention is paid to ALS," Richman said.

"It's not a very prominent disease," Price said. "Everybody talks about cancer. Everybody knows about Parkinson's."

Price said her mother's first cousin also died of the disease. ALS strikes people in different ways, causing muscle weakness in the hands, arms, legs and respiratory system, but also impairments in the muscles used for speech and swallowing.

Rubinstein managed the news of her own ALS diagnosis with trademark toughness.

'Thanking people'
"She was always strong, positive about things," Price said. "Even down to the end, she was still smiling and thanking people for helping her."

The walk helps family members cope with the loss.

"We just get out there in Mom's memory," Price said. "We tell stories to her grandchildren. It helps to remember the wonderful times we had."

Sandy's Smilers hopes to raise $2,500. Donations can still be made by clicking on the team name at www.lesturnerals.com.

About 10 percent of ALS cases are familial, but Price said she is not aware if there is a hereditary link in their lineage.

"The tests are not definitive and doctors have said, 'Do you really want to know?'" Price said.

Still, the walk is one way to be proactive against the disease that has robbed her of two loved ones.

"If it is hereditary, it may hit my family again," Price said. "Anything I can do to speed up research, I'm behind."

Approximately 1,000 people in Illinois have ALS and about 250 more are diagnosed each year. The Les Turner ALS Foundation currently serves nearly 400 patients throughout the Chicagoland area. Price said her mother got help from the foundation, which is where they first learned of the walk.

"We're thrilled the Price family and their friends and relatives will be participating in the Walk4Life again this year," said Wendy Abrams, executive director of the Les Turner ALS Foundation. "It's important for the ALS family teams who will be at the event honoring a current patient to see that they're surrounded by those who have been in their shoes and are now paying tribute to someone who lost his or her life to ALS."



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