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Crush ALS/Team Bannon is making its 7th consecutive annual state trek
Crush ALS/Team Bannon to make 7th-consecutive state trek
YOUNGSTOWN
There’s still no cause, treatment or cure found for ALS.
That’s what motivates Crush ALS/Team Bannon to make its seventh- consecutive three-day, 270 mile ALS-TDI Tri-State Trek bicycle ride from Boston to New York City.
Led by Breen O. Bannon and his sister, Lisa Bannon Steinmetz, Team Bannon also rides to honor their brother, Chuck Bannon, who died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 2009.
The purpose of the Trek, known as The Ride to End ALS, is to raise awareness and money for research.
Often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, ALS is a progressive neuro-degenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. Degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death, which causes the brain to lose its ability to initiate and control muscle movement. Patients in the later stages of the disease may become paralyzed.
The disease is always fatal.
“In two to five years after diagnosis, you are dead,” said Bannon of Cornersburg.
Proceeds from the Tri-State Trek Friday through Sunday benefit the ALS-Therapy Development Institute, the first and largest nonprofit biotech focused 100 percent on ALS research.
The 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge was such a phenomenal success that just about everyone now knows the devastating effects of ALS, Bannon said.
So he asks himself: “Do I really need to get on a 10-speed bike again and pedal 270 miles, sometimes through rain and scorching heat, from Boston to New York ... will it really make a difference?”
For the seventh year in a row, his answer is the same: “Hell, yeah.”
Because after all these years of research and fund-raising, there’s still no cure or effective treatment for ALS, he said.
“After we lost our brother, my sister, Lisa, and I vowed to keep riding until researchers discover some kind of cure or treatment,” said Bannon, 47.
The 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge went viral on the Internet. during the six-week period of August through mid-September. The ALS Association, not affiliated with ALS-TDI, received $115 million, 67 percent of which is committed to research, said Mary Wilson Wheelock, executive director of the ALS Association Northern Ohio Chapter in Independence.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based ALS-TDI received $4 million through the Ice Bucket Challenge, $1.5 million of which it put into its precision medicine program, designed to break ALS down into treatable subgroups. The rest of the money is earmarked for research to move forward to human clinical-trial status two promising treatment drugs that have shown success in animals, said Carol Hamilton, ALS-TDI development director.
“We must still focus on research,” said Bannon, a graduate of Cardinal Mooney High School and Youngstown State University. He is vice president and commercial-relationship manager for Farmers National Bank of Canfield and a member of the Youngstown Kiwanis Club, which he said supports ALS-TDI.
Over its seven years, Crush ALS/Team Bannon has done its part for research.
“I’m really proud to report that our little team that began in 2009 with three riders has grown to 15 riders, plus four crew, from across the United States, including Seattle, Vancouver, Atlanta, Chicago, Ohio, New York and New Jersey.
Even Bannon’s niece, Nell Steinmetz, 16, Lisa’s daughter, has gotten into the fight.
A member of Team Bannon, she formed a Crush ALS Club at her high school this past school year that has about 30 members that raised about $2,000 for ALS-TDI, which depends on the nearly $1 million raised annually by the Trek for about 10 percent of its budget.
In 2014, CrushALS/TeamBannon alone raised more than $100,000, the single biggest fundraiser of the Trek. Over its seven years of riding the Trek, Team Bannon will have raised more than $300,000 for ALS-TDI.
Bannon asked people to consider supporting Team Bannon’s efforts by donating online at: http://tst.als.net/BBannon. Donors who prefer to write a check may make it payable to Tri-State Trek and mail it to Breen Bannon, 3478 Bentwillow Lane, Youngstown, OH 44511.
“Thank you all for your very gracious and ongoing support of my efforts. Through your donations, and with each pedal stroke, I truly believe we are making a difference in the battle to end this cruel disease. Never give up,” he said.