Chris Snow is a fighter.
Snow has had quite a ride in the sports industry so far. From covering the Boston Red Sox as a writer for The Boston Globe to his current position as the assistant general manager of the Calgary Flames, the 38-year-old has had an incredible career so far.
But the sports industry is nothing compared to the fight Snow currently is going through. He was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) this past summer.
Kelsie Snow, Chris’ wife, published an open letter Dec. 18 documenting the diagnosis and the best steps forward to help the family in this trying time of need.
The aggressive form of the illness affecting Snow has a prognosis of six to 18 months, but while he already has had the disease for eight months, it hasn’t progressed much to this point.
Kelsie has been keeping a blog where she has given updates on Chris’ condition and on Feb. 6 had a positive one.
“Eight months from diagnosis, Chris should have lost so much,” Kelsie said. “Things like his ability to walk, feed himself, fill his lungs with air, project with his voice, swallow without risk of choking.
“But this last week, instead of coming home to tell me about a loss of function, he walked in the door after a normal workday (another thing he should not have at this point) and told me he regained a small bit of movement in his wrist.”
She continued.
“My husband is living with ALS,” Kelsie said. “We believe he has had zero disease progression since we started in this clinical trial. Instead, it seems some of his nerves might be healing.”
ALS is a devastating illness, but Chris hasn’t given up. He spoke with NESN’s Dale Arnold, Billy Jaffe and Andrew Raycroft about the illness and how he plans to continue his fight.
“My cousin Matt died three, four years ago at age 28,” Chris said on NESN’s Boston Bruins coverage. “That’s not going to happen again in our family; that’s my goal.”
