Idol judge to bring personal experience to talk at ALS fundraising dinner
Ten years ago, Zack Werner's father died of the degenerative disease, leaving his son feeling 'robbed.'
Tony Lofaro , Ottawa Citizen
Published: Sunday, October 21, 2007
Canadian Idol judge Zack Werner struggled as he watched his father - a once strong, "tough-as-nails guy" - waste away from the effects of ALS within a year of being diagnosed.

"He was over six feet tall, he was about 230 pounds and he was always defined by most people by his physical presence as well as his intellectual presence," Mr. Werner said. "It was the last thing you would think that someone like that would have all of their strength waste away over the course of a year. It was very shocking," he said.

Leonard Werner was a prominent businessman in Winnipeg who ran a family business called Dominion Soudak Fur Auction Sales and at one time was president of the Fur Council of Canada. He was a devoted family man who had time for his children as well as for the community.


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Font:****"He was a big, strong brawling workalcoholic ex-football player and a tough-as-nails guy," said Mr. Werner.

Leonard Werner was diagnosed with the disease 11 years ago and he died a year later at the age of 62.

Zach Werner said it was awful to see his father reduced to a skeleton of himself over the year, especially when his family was powerless to do anything for him.

"This disease is incredibly humbling and de-humanizing if you allow it to be. It's very difficult to watch a loved one lose their mobility, a loss of strength followed by an inability to breathe and to swallow.

"It just takes away any shred of the dignity that someone like that deserves."

Mr. Werner is the national chairman and spokesman for the Walk for ALS and will be speaking about the disease at a fundraising dinner Oct. 27 at Cleo Banquet Hall. The dinner is organized by the Peloso family of Ottawa in honour of Pierino Peloso, who died from the disease six years ago.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a progressive and fatal neuromuscular disorder that causes degeneration of a select group of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. As the nerve cells die, people with ALS lose control of their muscles, which makes breathing, eating and even smiling virtually impossible. Eighty per cent of people with ALS will die within two to five years. Up to 10 per cent live 10 years or more.

Between 2,500 and 3,000 Canadians live with ALS.

Mr. Werner said he made several trips to his home town of Winnipeg from Toronto where he was working during his father's last year in order to spend as much time as possible with him.

"Over the course a number of years it really caught up with me and it would be very gut-wrenching to remember what he went through," said Mr. Werner, who heads Venus Management.

"I would hear him in my head all the time and realize how much I miss that voice and how difficult it was to go on making decisions and feeling comfortable without having the opportunity to run it by him. He meant a lot to me."

Mr. Werner said his relationship with his father was at times testy, especially when he was a teenager and very rebellious and he came up against his father, who was stern and demanding.

"We had a terrible teenage relationship, but certainly as an adult I came to rely on his voice, his logic and support in the things that I was doing," he said.

Mr. Werner felt he was "robbed" of a father who was suddenly taken away from his family at a young age.

"He had a young family, and he was very conscious of his health and worked very hard to get into shape. He had quit smoking in his 40s, he had lost weight, he was running and doing all the things that one would do in order to live a long and healthy life."


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