Ride For Life: Hospice for ALS patients opens in Canada

Jacques Guay thought something wasn't right when he began losing strength in his limbs, tripping over his feet, and falling from a ladder.

He never dreamed it was the beginning of the fatal disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

The diagnosis in 1999 for Guay, a former electrician with the University of Manitoba, was a death sentence. His deteriorating body has already forced him into a motorized wheelchair. But he says it brings comfort to him and his family knowing that Winnipeg is now home to what is believed to be the first hospice for ALS patients in Canada and possibly all of North America.

"It's amazing how much work has been done here," Guay, 44, a father of two, said Thursday during ceremonies celebrating the opening of Brummitt-Feasby House.

"I know with this disease it's the way they're taking care of me. It's hard to move, it's hard to talk. We have a hard time living. But with the people here, I'm sure they'll make it easier."

Guay's wife, Debbie, said the family hopes he won't have to spend his last days inside the hospice.

"But if we have to, it's nice to know it's here," she said as their children, Jennifer, 12, and Jonathan, 10, hugged their father. "It's peace of mind for the family."

ALS is more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease for the former New York Yankees great who succumbed to it in 1941 at 37.

It is a degenerative and fatal neuro-muscular disease. ALS does not affect mental functions or memory, but causes progressive muscular weakness leading to paralysis and death, usually from respiratory failure, within two to five years.

The hospice opened after 14 months of renovations to a St. James bungalow donated by two sisters.

It will begin accepting patients by the end of the year.

Lynn Brown and Faith Johnston donated the house their stepmother willed to them in honour of both their father Fred Feasby and stepmother Dorothy Brummitt. Brummitt died of ALS last year.

Diana Rasmussen, president of the ALS Society of Manitoba, said there are currently 78 Manitobans diagnosed with the disease, half who live outside of Winnipeg.