Tim Green And Son, Troy, Develop Way To Tackle ALS Tim Green and Son Troy Develop Way To Tackle ALS

ANC: When Tim Green publicized his A-L-S diagnosis, he and his son Troy were eager to come up with a unique way to conquer this new challenge. N-C-C News’ Amanda Albert learned how Troy is working to help Tim “Tackle ALS.”

ALBERT: Troy Green has been by his dad’s side through every step of his A-L-S journey.

GREEN: He’s always been the rock and the backbone of our family, so I’ve kind of, in my head throughout this whole process, I’ve just thought, if roles were reversed, if I had A-L-S, what would he be doing for me?

ALBERT: Troy describes his current lifestyle as a balancing act. At 24-years-old, he says he sleeps a lot less, while trying to divide time between law school, work, friends, family, his wife, and Tackle A-L-S dot com. He explains that his idea for Tackle A-L-S is an effort to raise money without simply asking for donations.

NATURAL SOUND: You see the top teams, it displays the top ten on the front cover, and you can see the total donations, which is exciting

ALBERT: Troy says any person who donates a thousand dollars or more can start a team on Tackle A-L-S dot com. All the money ultimately goes to the same place, but the teams create a sense of competition. A hundred percent of proceeds will go to Massachusetts General Hospital where Tim is being treated.

GREEN: We wanted to do something that was going to be fun and different and that’s why the teams and the competition.

ALBERT: According to Tim’s long-time friend, Stu Lisson, some prominent Skaneateles residents and former N-F-L quarterbacks are team captains on the website.

LISSON: A lot of Tim’s friends like Adam Weitsman and Brett Favre have created these little teams and it’s kind of competitive.

ALBERT: In first place on the leaderboard right now is actually the staff at Mass General Hospital – with more than four-hundred-thousand dollars. Doctor Merit Cudkowicz (suh-KO-vich) is Director of the Healy Center for A-L-S at Mass General. She says doctors, friends of doctors, and patients are contributing donations.

CUDKOWICZ: We reached out to all our patients to tell them about Tackle A-L-, what the money is going to go for and why it is really important, so that’s largely the source of the donations to the M-G-H team.

ALBERT: Lisson adds that Troy came up with a tag line being used to promote Tackle A-L-S.

LISSON: A lot of the athletes – where they just did a little thing like ‘Let’s beat this!’

NATURAL SOUND: Let’s beat this! Let’s beat this! Let’s beat this!

LISSON: And it kind of struck a cord in a lot of people because it’s a very underfunded disease because people get this, but it’s not out in the numbers of some of the other kinds of afflictions that you can have.

ALBERT: The current total raised – more than 1.5 million dollars. It’s a family affair with Troy in charge.

GREEN: Everybody’s been involved, but I’ve kind of been overseeing, or quarterbacking the whole thing. But everyone is so involved in terms of getting people to the website, setting up teams.

ALBERT: Every family member, including Tim’s wife Illyssa and Troy’s brothers, Thane and Ty, help with everything they can. Younger sister, Tate, acts as a web developer, while older sister, Tessa, spends more time assisting Tim. Lisson says much of the website’s success is credit to Troy.

LISSON: I think the website has been incredibly effective thanks to Troy’s leadership.

ALBERT: The ultimate goal for this project is to raise money for an A-L-S master clinical trial. Troy says the majority of current A-L-S studies are only open to people within two years of the diagnosis.

GREEN: Essentially it allows anybody who has A-L-S – regardless if you’ve been diagnosed for a day, or for 20 years – to be part of a clinical trial for new drugs.

ALBERT: There are 83 A-L-S drugs waiting for funding. Cudkowicz (suh-KO-vich) from Mass General says the first two drugs can be developed once the Healy Center has ten-million-dollars. Tackle A-L-S is making a difference.

CUKOWICZ: It’s huge – we didn’t have, a couple weeks ago, 1.5 million dollars.

ALBERT: His football career may be over, but Tim Green and his family are continuing to “tackle” whatever life throws at them.

NATURAL SOUND: Join us, and let’s tackle A-L-S.

ALBERT: Amanda Albert, N-C-C News.