When someone you love is diagnosed with ALS, the first question you ask is, What can I do to help? For my family, that question became painfully personal in July 2024, when my dad, Micheal Corbitt Jr., was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.

ALS is a progressive neuromuscular disease that slowly takes away a person's ability to walk, speak, swallow, breathe, and live independently. But for the people who live with ALS and the families who stand beside them, it is so much more than a medical diagnosis. It changes everyday life. It changes families. It changes the future someone imagined for themselves.

I know because I watched it happen to my dad.

In the months after his diagnosis, ALS took away ability after ability. Things that most of us never have to think about became challenges. My family watched someone we loved lose his independence and so much of what made everyday life feel normal. He was diagnosed in July 2024, and by April 2025, he was gone.

He had only nine months.

Nine months is not enough time for anyone. It wasn't enough time for my dad, and it wasn't enough time for our family.

But my dad's story is not the only story that matters.

There are families across Georgia who are living this reality right now. There are people waking up every day knowing that ALS is changing their bodies and their independence. There are husbands, wives, parents, children, siblings, and friends who are watching someone they love fight a disease they cannot simply overcome through willpower. There are families adjusting their homes, their routines, and their entire lives around ALS while hoping for more time.

That is why we walk.

walkALS Georgia is about bringing people together to raise awareness and funds to support people living with ALS and their families. Our goal isn't simply to remember those we have lost. It is to stand beside the people who are still fighting, to provide support for families navigating this devastating disease, and to help advance research toward better treatments and, ultimately, a cure.

When I walk, I carry my dad's memory with me. But I also walk for the people who are still here.

I walk for the person who was just diagnosed and is trying to understand what comes next. I walk for the family member who has suddenly become a caregiver. I walk for the person fighting to hold onto their independence for just a little longer. I walk for the families who desperately want more time together.

Because I know what nine months can look like.

I know how quickly ALS can change a life. I know how much it can take. And I know how desperately families need hope.

Every donation, every person who shares this message, and every person who joins us at walkALS Georgia helps bring us one step closer to a world where an ALS diagnosis doesn't mean watching someone you love lose everything they once could do.

My dad didn't get enough time. I can't change that. But I can choose to do something with the time I have.

So I walk for Micheal. I walk for my family. I walk for every person currently living with ALS. And I walk for every family who deserves more time with the people they love.

We walk because ALS doesn't stop with one person. It affects all of us. And together, we can help make sure no one has to face it alone.