Austin woman to walk to Boston for ALS awareness
 

Austin woman to walk to Boston for ALS awareness

06:37 PM CST on Thursday, December 28, 2006

By JIM BERGAMO
KVUE News

An Austin woman is planning an ambitious three months starting in March. She plans to walk from Austin to Boston to help spread awareness for the disease that claimed her mother's life.


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Tracy Schach
When New York Yankees great Lou Gehrig delivered this famous speech back on July fourth, 1939, he was already in the degenerative stages of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS. ALS would soon become known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

"Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth," he said at the time.

Now another major leaguer, current Boston Red Sox pitcher Mike Timlin, has seen a family member succumb to the disease. Timlin's mother, Shannon, passed away in 2002.

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"She had such a love of life. It was just devastating to lose someone who had so much to give this world," said Tracy Schach, Timlin's sister.

Schach is filled with family pride. She prefers to remember her mother this way, instead of in the throes of ALS.

"It just robs a life from you so quickly," she said.

Schach marvels that ALS has remained almost as much of a mystery as it was when Gehrig put a face on the disease 67 years ago.

"It doesn't make any sense, and there's not enough knowledge as to why this is happening, what makes the system shut down the way it does and why is it genetically in this family, but not in this family. So it's a huge mystery," she said.

So in an attempt to raise money for ALS research and spread awareness about the disease, Tracy said, "I woke up one morning and said, you know, I think I'll walk from Austin to Boston."

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The walk will be roughly 2,000 miles. She'll leave Austin on March 1 and plans to be in Boston in time for the annual 5K in her mother's name, which is a major league accomplishment that even Mike has to be proud of.

"Because of the ability that God gave him, we are able to help other people, and that's what this is all about," Schach said. "It's not about me or what I'm doing; it's about what I'm doing, it's about the fight, about winning the battle. That way I don't have to see anyone else feel the pain and sorrow that I did."

Tracy says by walking 20 to 25 miles a day, she should make it to Massachusetts in 80 days. But she's given herself 100 just to play it safe. If you'd like to make a monetary donation to help Schach's trek or to ALS research, call Schach at (512) 431-9342 or donations can be made directly to:

Wells Fargo

"Austin to Boston ALS Awareness Walk"
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