Success of Ice Bucket Challenge

The ice bucket challenge that was all over social media in 2014 helped raise money for research that discovered the ability to identify genes that could make a person susceptible to the debilitating disease.
News 25’s Katarina Luketich caught up with some Coast residents who are living with ALS and found what that discovery means to them and the disease they’re fighting.
Wayne Tiblier is living with ALS. He said, “ALS is like a hurricane. When it strikes your body, you never know where it’s gonna strike. You never know the devastation it’s going to leave behind from one day to the next.”
Two years ago, Wayne Tiblier took the ice bucket challenge, like many he didn’t know what ALS was. What he also didn’t know is that he had already been living with the disease for well over a year. Although he says he’s fortunate to have a case that’s progressing slowly, it’s still taking a serious toll. “There’s so many things that my wife, family have to help me with now that I didn’t need help with a year ago, like getting dressed, bathroom, going back and forth, taking showers and stuff.”
The ice bucket challenge helped people understand what ALS is, a disease that attacks cells in the brain and spine and ultimately leads to the inability to move any part of the body or to speak. It ends in respiratory failure. The viral videos were integral in the movement to raise $115 million for the ALS Association, money that funded research to identify genes that could make a person susceptible to the disease. Although this research is groundbreaking, it’s not the end. “As far as them finding a cure for ALS, no, they have not. As far as them finding a cause for ALS, no, they have not,” said Tiblier.
So the members of the ALS support group here on the Coast are challenging everyone to continue the ice bucket challenge, to help raise more awareness and more money for research. Kaitlyn Lock Boltz with ALS Association said, “The more people who are aware of ALS, the sooner that we will hopefully find that treatment or that cure.”
As for Wayne Tiblier, he’s made it his mission to be the voice of ALS while he still can, educating others in hopes that one day doctors will find a cure for this devastating disease. “I never look back. I never ask why. I just keep going forward, that’s all I know to do.”