Brian Byrd, 49, is a husband to Kristina and father to Jessica and Connor, both in college. In 2013, Brian, who owned and operated a successful general contracting and plumbing business, exhibited signs and symptoms of muscle cramps, twitching and weakness in his extremities. He began to stumble and seemed to have less strength using the tools required to do his job. After many tests and exploring many possibilities for the causes of these symptoms, he was finally diagnosed in 2014 at the University of Pennsylvania as having ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis—Lou Gehrig’s disease )and was told he would be gifted with 2-5 years more of life. With this sentence of a shortened life, Brian expressed that his desire is to live out his last years well on his farm and to spend quality time with his family, friends, and critters. By the end of 2014 Brian was no longer able to work.
Once a gifted athlete, Brian is now confined to bed and a wheelchair, needs assistance with all his activities of daily living, and "talks" with a computer using his eyes. Although he still has dreams that he is running or doing lay-ups, he nevertheless wakes up to the reality of ALS and the fact that he had limited mobility. As the disease ravages his body and his motor neurons cease firing, his hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch, intellect, sense of humor, and love for his family are not affected.
But most importantly, even though his body is becoming weaker, his faith and hope in Jesus remains strong. As a loving father, Brian still continues to be concerned for the safety and security of his family and desires to care for his family.
Your financial support will help to mitigate some of that concern, so thank you in advance for your generous financial and prayer support!
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