Woman living with Lou Gehrig's reunites with biological mother at Walk to End ALS

The Walk to End ALS saw a mother and daughter that have been separated for five decades taking part in this year's fundraiser.

Sharon Carson, who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) 26 years ago, reunited with her mother, Lorraine Pruce, this past January.

Pruce tells SooToday that she gave up Carson for adoption 51 years ago. 

“Amazing, I feel really blessed,” Carson told SooToday when asked for her reaction to taking part in this year’s walk with her biological mother for the first time. “Truly blessed.”

Pruce says that her daughter wanted to find her roots, and completed a DNA test through Ancestry.ca.

Carson subsequently found one of her cousins as a result of that DNA test.

It wasn’t too long after that when Pruce got word from her sister that her long-lost daughter had been found.

“I almost dropped,” said Pruce. “I’m getting elderly, and after all these years - 51 years - I never dreamt we’d ever be able to connect.”

Although the pair have since hit it off - they agree that they both enjoy and dislike the exact same types of things, generally speaking - that first encounter on January 28 made both mother and daughter nervous. 

“Nerve wracking,” Carson said. “We were both a bundle of nerves.”

Carson has had the opportunity to meet members of her biological family since that initial meeting between her and her mother this past winter.

And now, she gets to do the Walk to End ALS event with members of her family.

“Wonderful, I couldn’t be happier,” Pruce told SooToday. “My sister travelled all the way from Alliston to come up just for the walk too - she came up in April just to meet Sharon.”

“It’s great. It’s a good day.”

Carson has been doing the walk for the better part of 20 years now, and says that much has changed since she was first diagnosed with ALS nearly 30 years ago, thanks to the work of ALS Canada and the organization’s fundraising walk, which takes place across Canada each year.

”It’s really important to raise awareness and funds for research,” Carson said. “It’s a 100-year-old disease, and it’s never been researched - just in the last 20 years.”

“When I first got diagnosed, nobody knew anything about it. We’ve come a long way.”

“The money that is raised here, and all other walks across Canada, is used to first of all support those living with ALS - so helping with the equipment program, and making sure that they’re well supported in the community and at their homes,” said Tracy Galizia, regional manager for the Algoma District chapter of ALS Canada. “And then secondly, it’s to fund the research and the advocacy piece.”

Galizia, whose father, Don McColl, passed away due to ALS just five years ago, says that the walk also serves as a memorial for those who have lost loved ones to the disease.

“It’s definitely a very touching walk, you’ll see a lot of people with t-shirts showing off their loved ones, and they tend to wear the same t-shirts over and over to memorialize the people that we’re thinking about, and the reason why we’re here today gathering for this important cause,” Galizia said.

Last year’s Walk to End ALS raised just over $20,000, with proceeds going towards ALS support and research across Canada.