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$35 raised,
our goal is $3,000!

Ricardo Oliva's ALS Running

Life has interesting ways of showing us its powers. It also teaches us how strong and, at the same time, fragile we are.

My Uncle Tom was a wonderful person. A brother to my mother and other 5 bothers and sisters, a son to my Grandparents, a father to my two cousins and last year even became a Grandfather to a beautiful baby girl he never had the opportunity to meet. He was a person loved not only by his family, but by many who's life he had the opportunity to cross paths with. He was a beautiful soul and he surely touched my life.

At around 1996, my uncle was diagnosed with ALS and three and a half years later he succumbed to this enemy who was stronger than him and all of our family. During that time, I realized that not only children cried and that some feelings are so strong that it is impossible to hide or ignore them.

Truth be said, most of our family had no idea of what the disease was. It did not take long though, before we all knew. How fast his body was affected was almost hard to believe. How can someone who walked and biked on a daily basis for exercise now need me to assist him bathing and doing simple tasks such as getting into and out of a car?

One thing ALS was never able to take away from my uncle though, was his smile. Sometimes he would even joke about the hardships of his new reality and make us laugh. Even in the last few months of his life, you could always see him boasting a big smile when seeing friends and family. He never needed help for that...

My uncle passed away on August 2000, after his 56th birthday. Why I am doing this only now? In August 2008, my wife and I had a beautiful baby boy, named Lucas. During the birth of my son, I could not help but thinking about life and of all of the family members that I have lost. The strong memory of my uncle came back to me. At that time, I realized that I was being blessed with a new life and I thought I could maybe prevent new losses. That is why I am doing this...

Please help me with this cause as it is a beautiful one. I will be running in different events and trying to raise awareness and funds to assist research of ALS.

Thank you in advance,
Ricardo Oliva
http://www.RicardoOliva.com

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