Why Roger Walks
I met Roger Brannon, retired Marine, in March 2018. On May 23, 2016, nine days after his 45 birthday, Roger was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Not the news he expected to be dealing with when planning life at 45 and beyond. But it didn’t take this strong, brave Marine long to decide what he was going to do with his diagnosis. When the neurologist told Roger that he might have ALS, He researched ALS and was surprised by what he read. The first fact he found was that military veterans are twice as likely to get ALS. This hit home with him. Roger shared with me that when he was in the Marine Corps he made it a point to stay out of the spotlight. He didn’t like to be in the spotlight. He would rather be working in the trenches alongside his fellow Marines. He always put the mission first and personal wellbeing second. But ALS has changed this. He wants to put himself and ALS in the spotlight. “Today, I want to get my story out there—I want ALS to be ...