Let's end ALS for Sarah!

By now, most of you visiting this page already know Sarah's situation. If you don't, Sarah shared publicly on Twitter on Oct. 6 that she is battling ALS. Now, it's up to the rest of us to figure out how to fight with her.

The No. 1 thing that Sarah cares about is people. She never puts herself before anyone. So, her first priority through this journey is to make sure that other people don't ever have to experience what she's experiencing. That starts with raising money for ALS research so that one day (hopefully in the near future) there will be a cure.

To propel our fundraising, I have decided to run Sarah's favorite half marathon in Disney this January. In this quest, I'm hoping we can raise tons of money and awareness for a disease that isn't talked about enough.

Sarah loves half marathons. She's run six of them over the last few years and three were after the time her doctor later pinpointed she had begun experiencing symptoms of ALS. Yes, she ran THREE half marathons WITH ALS and didn't know what was wrong. The least I could do is try to run one.

Now, there's no way I could fundraise without at least some of the proceeds going to Sarah. She's trying to refuse these efforts (because, as I said, she cares about everyone else more than herself), but I usually find ways to win our arguments. She thinks she'll convince me that less than half of the money raised will go to her. I promise everyone who donates that I will fight to the death to ensure she accepts half of the proceeds to help her continue her fight against ALS. The other half will go to whatever ALS research organization means most to her. The more money we raise, the more both parties can benefit.

There's no one on the planet more inspiring than Sarah. She's fought this battle silently for so long while continuing to work all hours of the day to make the baseball community an even better and brighter place. She traveled to the All-Star Game in Los Angeles to help do research for the Home Run Derby and came to Cleveland in May to be a bridesmaid in my wedding. ALS can do many things to a person, but it can't stop Sarah from being...well, Sarah.

There's no reason she needs to fight this alone. There's no reason anyone else should ever have to go through what she's experiencing. And there's certainly no reason the general public doesn't know much about the disease (I'll admit, I barely knew anything before Sarah's diagnosis).

Let's each channel our inner Sarah Langs and try to put others first by joining her in this battle against ALS.

#SarahStrong #ForSlangs