Frank Rivera would never ask, so I am...

Hi there and thanks for visiting this page! My name is John and I have known Frank Rivera for about 30 years. Let me tell you a little about Frank if you don't already know. Frank has always been avaiIable to his friends and family - to offer a hand with whatever they needed. Frank was always a physical specimen - and because of that, he used his body to earn a living - Frank was a jack-of-all-trades handyman. As a young man, he was a great athlete.

I created this GoFundMe page because Frank has ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. (See bottom of this post for more information on ALS.) Because of this debilitating and deadly disease, Frank - the strong, physically capable handyman - is no longer able to earn a living. In fact, Frank has difficulty doing his regular activities of daily living. He has difficulty with walking, grasping items and speech, to name only a few things. Amazingly, Frank was told 6 years ago that he only had 3 years left to live, at best. While Frank is defying the odds as best he can, his battle becomes more difficult each day. Frank has downsized his living arrangements by moving in with his mom, he has given away or sold most of his personal belongings, and he was forced to stop working as a handyman. Frank has been making a gallant effort to keep ahead of things both mentally and financially, but ALS will win the battle. Frank's body is letting him down and there is nothing he can do about it. However, we CAN do something. We can rally around Frank and help him with his financial struggles in the last years (?) of his life. Please consider donating to Frank - if he could, he'd help you. Please note, donations will say they are to benefit Julia Treska, but she is merely managing the funds for Frank so he has one less thing to worry about. Rest assured, ALL money raised will go to Frank.

For your reference, the following information is from the ALS association website: "ALS is a PROGRESSIVE neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. A-myo-trophic comes from the Greek language. "A" means no. "Myo" refers to muscle, and "Trophic" means nourishment – "No muscle nourishment." When a muscle has no nourishment, it "atrophies" or wastes away. "Lateral" identifies the areas in a person's spinal cord where portions of the nerve cells that signal and control the muscles are located. As this area degenerates, it leads to scarring or hardening ("sclerosis") in the region. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their demise. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, people may lose the ability to speak, eat, move and breathe. The motor nerves that are affected when you have ALS are the motor neurons that provide voluntary movements and muscle control. Examples of voluntary movements are making the effort to reach for a smart phone or step off a curb. These actions are controlled by the muscles in the arms and legs." Please see the ALS website for more details!