GoPro for a Cause: Steve Gleason - A Father's Story
Founded to help those diagnosed with ALS to live life to the fullest, Team Gleason is the brainchild of NFL player and ALS patient Steve Gleason.
In 2011, former New Orleans Saints defensive back Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS. Every 90 seconds, someone is diagnosed with the disease. Only 10% of those diagnosed survive at least 10 years. Most people survive only 2-5 years. To see how you can help, visit http://goo.gl/YG6ztw.
Rather than be defeated by the diagnosis, Steve made it his mission to inspire patients with ALS to not only live with the disease, but to thrive. He and his wife Michel formed Team Gleason, a non-profit that helps provide leading edge technology, equipment and services to individuals with neuromuscular diseases or injuries.
Today, people with ALS live more independently at Team Gleason House for Innovative Living in New Orleans. Team Gleason has also helped hundreds of people with the disease experience and document adventures they never thought possible. Those documentaries are raising awareness of the devastating effects of ALS, and inspiring the pursuit to find treatments to end the disease.
One of those documentaries is Steve’s own submission to the Sundance Film Festival. Steve began it as a record of himself, for his son Rivers. It has become a poignant and powerful story of a father who wants to be there for his son long after his own passing. In the process of capturing life lessons for his son, it has become an example of the courage, compassion and dedication to Fatherhood that make Steve a true HERO in our eyes.