I was born in England on October 20, 1928, in a place outside of London called Wandsworth. I was the second youngest of 4 sons. I served in the British Forces when I was 18 yrs old, and was released after 3-1/2 yrs service of which most of that time was served in Germany.
I decided to immigrate to Canada in 1953 and sailed from Southampton to Montreal on the Empress of Australia. It took 7 days (of which 4 out of the 7, I was sea sick). Not a very nice experience.
Upon arriving in Montreal I immediately traveled to Toronto, worked on the railroad for a while and decided to join the Canadian Forces and served for 16 yrs in the "ROYAL ARMY ORDNANCE CORP". I served in Montreal, Calgary, and again in Germany until I retired in London, Ontario.
Living with ALS
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I have been living with ALS since 1991. It started with a burning sensation and stiffness in my left leg. My Doctor at that time was puzzled, to say the least, as to what the cause was as over a period of time it escalated.
I had to find myself another Doctor because the one I had told me point blank that he had no idea what was causing my condition. I admired that Doctor for his honesty which led me to the Doctor that I still have to this day. He did not mess around with me but sent me to a Neurologist, namely, Dr Eisen at V.G.H. (Vancouver General Hospital), this was about 3 yrs after my first symptoms. He right away diagnosed me as having PLS (PRIMARY LATERAL SCLEROSIS) which of course is the beginning of ALS as we all know it.
This diagnosis made me stop and think... it`s not every day you get a slap in the face like that... and so I asked myself these questions: What am I to do? How much time do I have? How fast does this ALS take over your body? And many more questions of a minor nature also had to be reckoned with.
I came to the conclusion that worrying about what was going to happen was fruitless, so I made my mind up right away that I would just continue the way I was and do the things I had been doing come what may. In other words, I would cross my bridges when I came to them and so far it has worked. I still do what I want to do but not as fast as I used to, but I do get the job done.
I am not on any medication for ALS and never have been, however, I do take lots of vitamins daily. I keep very busy doing my hobbies, I do not think of any ALS aches and pains. ALS has affected my speech, and although I walk around the house unaided I do use a wheelchair when I am out on the town.
I find that some days my speech is better than others, and my wife and I find it very frustrating to say the least, and she tries very hard to interpret what I say. It takes a while sometimes for her to decipher what I just said rather than me not having to repeat it, but when she cannot figure it out she tells me. It is very hard for both of us and I know that I should carry a paper and pencil but I feel that if I did that I would not speak at all.
Finally, I think my advice to anyone that has an ailment such as ALS is this: don`t give in to this, push yourself to do things if you can. I look at myself as being as one of the lucky ones with ALS, I have seen others a lot worse off than I, so I will continue with what I am doing as it works for me. Having said that I think each person has to know their own capabilities and exploit them.
Ron Southgate (MISSION. BC.)
"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about." Charles Kingsley
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