New Bedford man gives a local face to regional ALS campaign



Photos by MIKE VALERI/The Standard-Times Above, Jeff Lawrence, who has ALS, and his wife, Anne, sail back from Martha’s Vineyard recently. Below, he walks along the dock with his friend Chris Perperas, using a cane a friend gave to him.
mike valeri

By JENNIFER JARVIS
Standard-Times correspondent
August 08, 2007 6:00 AM


NEW BEDFORD — Anyone observing Jeff Lawrence sitting in his favorite chair in his living room, wearing a baseball cap and drinking some juice would sense immediately that he doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd enjoy the spotlight.

But Mr. Lawrence mustered the courage to speak in front of hundreds of people at the kickoff of Shaw's Supermarkets' Pitch'n to Win campaign. Shaw's has teamed with Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, who started Curt's Pitch for ALS in 1993 to benefit people living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

"Making the speech in front of the whole gauntlet of media and news reporters was daunting," he said.

ALS is a disease in which motor neurons along the brain and spinal cord waste away until the brain can no longer control the movement of the body's muscles, making it progressively more difficult to walk, speak, swallow and breathe. There is no known cause or cure.

According to Mr. Lawrence, there is a 1 in 100,000 chance of getting the disease if no other family members have had it. There are no other cases of ALS in his family.

"It's like hitting the lottery, they told us," Anne, Mr. Lawrence's wife, said. "Some lottery."

But the cynicism stops there. Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence and their children, Zachary, 16, Benjamin, 13, and Caleb, 8, are determined to face the ordeal together.

"We're hanging in there," Mrs. Lawrence said.

As a nurse, she deals with sick people all day long. But Mr. Lawrence's case is still hard to get used to.

"When you come home and you're faced with it, it's much different."

The couple's sons have stepped up to help.

"The boys are real overly protective of me," Mr. Lawrence, 44, said. They've been coping with the news of their father's diagnosis, but sometimes just don't want to talk about it, Mrs. Lawrence said.

"Ben will switch the subject if he's had too much," she said.


positive outlook
Mr. Lawrence, officially diagnosed on Jan. 16, showed symptoms long before that, but they were masked for months by a work accident. An employee of Shaw's for 22 years, he was unloading a dairy truck in July 2006 when he wrenched his back. Over the next few weeks, he noticed his left leg going numb and his left hand losing mobility. Thinking these were side-effects of his injury, he shrugged them off until September, when he finally got it checked out.

Three medical centers and a battery of tests and medications later, the ALS diagnosis was confirmed.

"At that point, I kind of figured," Mr. Lawrence said.

Because the disease progresses at a different rate for each person, the doctors won't give him a prognosis, but that's fine with him.

"Who wants to know you're only going to be around 18 months?" he said. Instead, he keeps as normal of a routine as possible and takes it one day at a time.

"I'm not going to let it bring me down," he said.

Physically, however, things are getting tougher. Some day-to-day tasks have become impossible for him, including getting dressed on his own and opening bottles. Even swallowing is becoming more difficult.

He has lost 27 pounds since his diagnosis, going from 210 to a slim 183 since January. Doctors have encouraged him to eat high-protein foods and put on as much weight as possible to delay the need for a feeding tube.

He is also more susceptible to falls as his motor neurons start to fail. While making pork chop marinade in the kitchen a couple weeks ago, he lost his balance and hit his shoulder on the stove.

"My left foot didn't move when my body weight moved," he said, gesturing to the bruise on his shoulder. "There are lots of bruises."

The most frustrating thing for him is having to depend on other people to do one of his favorite activities — going out on his boat, a 20-foot Pearson Cruiser named Knot to Worry.

"Now I have to rely on family and friends so I can go out on the boat, because I can't handle the dock lines," he said.


'like a big family'
Mr. Lawrence has a knack for making friends wherever he goes, said Alan Rego, assistant customer service manager at the Dartmouth Shaw's where he has worked with Mr. Lawrence for 15 years.

He has plenty of good things to say about him.

"Hell of a guy, never calls in sick, always on time, personable," he said.

Mr. Lawrence serves as wells crew chief and store closer, maintaining a 40-hour work week. He uses a motorized scooter to get around the store.

"His dedication is still there," Mr. Rego said, adding that people are always asking how he is doing.

"One thing about working at Shaw's, we're kind of like a big family," he said.

As word of Mr. Lawrence's diagnosis spread, myriad people stepped in to help. Chris Perperas, Mr. Lawrence's coworker, and Doug Simmons, a good friend, organized a benefit for him in June, selling 850 raffle tickets so his family can take a 10-day vacation to Mexico. His union, Local 791, has helped with fundraisers and insurance. A retired teacher gave him a homemade wooden cane with his name carved in the side. And Gloria & Co., a spa in Fairhaven, offers him a free massage every week.

Then, of course, there is the second annual Pitch'n to Win campaign at all the Shaw's stores in New England. From July 6 to July 27, Shaw's customers purchased paper baseballs with the word "Strike" for $1.38 or "Out" for $3.38. Donors wrote their names on the baseballs, which were displayed around the stores.

As a testament to Mr. Lawrence's sociability, many customers donated with him in mind.

"Instead of putting their own name down, they put Jeff's name down," Mr. Rego said.

The campaign raised $210,972 for ALS research and patient care.

Both years, the campaign kickoff was held at the Fenway Shaw's in Boston, where Mr. Lawrence delivered his speech about his struggles with the disease and his hope for a cure.

"I think if you look on the faces of Curt and Shonda and Carl Jablonski, our president, they were obviously moved," said Judy Chong, director of public affairs for Shaw's.

The Dartmouth and Easton Shaw's stores each raised more than $7,000 for the campaign, more than any store has raised for a scan campaign in the past. Paper baseballs cover the Dartmouth store's walls as donors purchased more and more paper baseballs.

"The whole store's plastered," Mr. Lawrence said.

His personal testimony at the kickoff earlier this month no doubt helped encourage those who know him to donate.

"My biggest wish," he said in his speech, "is that with the funds that are being raised a cure can be found for this devastating disease."

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