Actor Eric Dane called for more funding for ALS research in a new video released on Monday, just months after he revealed he was diagnosed with the condition, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The 52-year-old actor, known for his roles on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and HBO’s Euphoria, spoke in a video shared by I am ALS, a community-led group dedicated to finding treatments and a cure for the neurological disorder.
“I’m Eric Dane. An actor, a father and now a person living with ALS,” he says in the video. “For over a century, ALS has been incurable, and we’re done accepting the status quo. We need the fastest path to a cure.”
The video was posted the day after Dane missed the Emmy Awards, where he was scheduled to present a Grey’s Anatomy tribute with his former costar Jesse Williams.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a nervous system disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, causing loss of muscle control. Over time, people with ALS start to lose their ability to walk, talk, eat and breathe, the ALS Association says. There is no cure for ALS, and patients usually live three to five years after the diagnosis, according to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, but there are some medications and physical therapy treatments that can help slow the disease’s progression.
In the video, Dane says the I am ALS group wants to raise $1 billion over the next three years to help patients and find a cure.
“There’s so much more to learn, more to do, and we have to do it now,” he says.
The video was posted the day after he missed the Emmy Awards, where he was scheduled to present a Grey’s Anatomy tribute with his former costar Jesse Williams.
Dane has not spoken publicly since late June, when he praised health insurance companies for recent reforms at a news conference in Washington, D.C.
Dane announced in April that he had been diagnosed with ALS and said he would still continue working. A month later, he sat down with Diane Sawyer for an interview that aired on Good Morning America, where he discussed his diagnosis and how he had already lost function in his right arm.
“I wake up every day, and I’m immediately reminded that this is happening,” he told Sawyer. “It’s not a dream.”
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