In a Race Against Terminal Illness, Former Obama Staffer with ALS And

Tuesday, February 4, 2020 Jumada II 10, 1441 AH Doha today 140 - 220 FIGHTING BACK: Husband Brian Wallach, left, with his wife Sandra Abrevaya. Photo: I Am ALS COVER Second innings STORY In a race against terminal illness, former Obama staff er with ALS and his wife find new hope a year later. P4-5 BOLLYWOOD HOLLYWOOD Horror is a tricky and Simpsons writer freaks out the technical genre: Vicky. Internet over age of characters. Page 14 Page 15 2 GULF TIMES Tuesday, February 4, 2020 COMMUNITY ROUND & ABOUT PRAYER TIME Fajr 4.57am Shorooq (sunrise) 6.17am Zuhr (noon) 11.49am Asr (afternoon) 2.58pm Maghreb (sunset) 5.21pm Isha (night) 6.51pm USEFUL NUMBERS Gretel & Hansel countryside, a young girl leads her little brother into a dark CAST: Sophia Lillis, Alice Krige, Jessica De Gouw wood in desperate search of food and work, only to stumble DIRECTION: Oz Perkins upon a nexus of terrifying evil. SYNOPSIS: A long time ago in a distant fairy tale THEATRES: Royal Plaza, Landmark, The Mall Emergency 999 Worldwide Emergency Number 112 Kahramaa – Electricity and Water 991 Local Directory 180 International Calls Enquires 150 Hamad International Airport 40106666 Labor Department 44508111, 44406537 Mowasalat Taxi 44588888 Qatar Airways 44496000 Hamad Medical Corporation 44392222, 44393333 Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation 44845555, 44845464 Primary Health Care Corporation 44593333 44593363 Qatar Assistive Technology Centre 44594050 Qatar News Agency 44450205 44450333 Q-Post – General Postal Corporation 44464444 Humanitarian Services Offi ce (Single window facility for the repatriation of bodies) Ministry of Interior 40253371, 40253372, 40253369 Ministry of Health 40253370, 40253364 Hamad Medical Corporation 40253368, 40253365 Bad Boys for Life drug cartel. Newly created elite team AMMO of the Miami Qatar Airways 40253374 DIRECTION: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah CAST: Will Smith, police department along with Mike and Marcus go up against Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig the ruthless Armando Armas. SYNOPSIS: Old-school cops Mike Lowery and Marcus Burnett team up to take down the vicious leader of a Miami THEATRES: The Mall te Unqu uo ot Q “Our e greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius Community Editor For movie timings and Kamran Rehmat further details please scan e-mail: [email protected] the QR code above with your Telephone: 44466405 mobile phone camera or visit qatarcinemas.com Fax: 44350474 Tuesday, February 4, 2020 GULF TIMES 3 ROUND & ABOUT COMMUNITY Keto Diet at Elite Medical Centre WHERE: Elite Medical Center WHEN: February 8 TIME: 11am To register for the seminar WhatsApp on 30771895 with your name and telephone number. It is a free seminar. After School Activities WHERE: Atelier WHEN: Ongoing Music and arts activities for students taking place after they fi nish their day in school includes Group Music lessons, Hip- hop, Ballet, Drawing and Painting, Drama Halal Qatar Festival TIME: 12:30pm Theatre & Taekwondo. Ages between 5 and 10 WHERE: Katara – the Cultural Village Street Food is the ideal venue for a leisure years old after school hours. WHEN: Ongoing till February 9 experience for the whole family off ering over Qatar Food Fest TIME: 8am onwards 20 dine-in options and 18-hole World Mini- WHERE: Sheraton Hotel Park The Halal Qatar Festival seeks to Golf setup. WHEN: Ongoing till April 30 strengthen the Qatari and Gulf heritage TIME: 4pm — 1am with all its rich resources in an entertaining Hobby Classes The festival is currently happening at atmosphere. The theme of the festival centres WHERE: Mamangam Performing Art Sheraton Hotel Park. Qatar Food Fest features on a distinct feature of Qatari heritage, one Centre 77 stalls, food trucks, and trolleys, bringing that is drawn from deep within the deserts of WHEN:Wednesday – Monday culinary and cultural experiences from all Qatar – sheep and goat breeding. Mamangam is an art and performance corners of the globe to visitors and residents centre started with a vision of spreading in Qatar. our knowledge, interests and experience in various disciplines in arts across diff erent Public Speaking Classes for Adults countries for children and adults. WHERE: Sharq Capital, C-Ring Road We off er regular classes in disciplines like WHEN:Ongoing till July 1 traditional classical dance, art and craft, TIME: 6:30pm – 9pm Bollywood and hip-hop styles, Carnatic Get trained by experts to be a good speaker. music, robotics, percussion instruments, Smedley Toastmasters is conducting a Ballet Lessons keyboard, yoga, zumba and martial arts six-month speech-craft programme that WHERE: Music and Arts Atelier like Karate, Shaolin Kung Fu and Kalari. For teaches new members to speak confi dently WHEN: Ongoing those who wish to register e-mail at info@ and develop leadership skills. For more TIME: 4pm – 8pm mamangamqatar.in information, 66053485, 33232490 or visit For more info e-mail at registration@ www.SmedleyToastmasters.org atelierqatar.com or call on 33003839. Honey Exhibition WHERE: Souq Waqif WHEN: Ongoing till February 8 TIME: 10am onwards The third edition of Souq Waqif Honey Exhibition is ongoing. The exhibition is organised by the Private Engineering Offi ce (PEO) in co-operation with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and with the participation of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment. Artistic Gymnastic Classes WHERE: Qatar Academy Msheireb WHEN: Ongoing TIME: 3:15pm – 4:15pm The Olympic sport using horizontal bar, rings and fl oor exercises on mats for the children from age 4 till 16. Metro Street Food WHERE: DECC Metro Station WHEN: Ongoing Compiled by Nausheen Shaikh. E-mail: [email protected], Events and timings subject to change 4 GULF TIMES Tuesday, February 4, 2020 COMMUNITY COVER STORY Back from the d(r)ead Diagnosed with ALS, a terminal disease with no cure, doctors told him in 2017 that he might have six months to live. Today, he’s focused on being there for his daughter’s future firsts: kindergarten drop-off , middle school dance, wedding day, writes Alison Bowen rian Wallach wasn’t supposed to live to see his younger daughter’s fi rst birthday. Diagnosed with Bamyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a terminal disease with no cure, doctors told him in 2017 that he might have six months to live. Today, he’s focused on being there for his daughter’s future fi rsts: kindergarten drop-off , middle school dance, wedding day. More than two years after his diagnosis, he has been lucky, he said, to experience relatively limited progression of his disease. After some balance issues, the Kenilworth resident now uses a cane — or, as he is careful to specify, a “cool walking stick” — to get around. When Wallach was diagnosed, neither he nor his wife, Sandra Abrevaya, knew much about ALS, a neurodegenerative disease that aff ects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord, eventually paralysing even the body’s ability to breathe. In response to Wallach’s diagnosis, the couple, both 39, launched I AM ALS in 2019. Former staff ers in the Obama White House, they marshalled lessons learned while campaigning — gathering information, forming consensus, considering the impossible possible — to build a force to mobilise hope and change for those facing a disease they say can and should be cured. Rays of hope are beginning to emerge through an innovative trial that received FDA approval last week HAIL OR SHINE, TOGETHER THEY STAND: Husband and wife Brian Wallach and Sandra Abrevaya at their home last month in Kenilworth, Illinois. to test several drugs at the same Together they created I AM ALS, “A patient-led, patient-centric community that reshapes public understanding of this disease, provides key resources to the time, a bipartisan congressional community, and creates opportunities for patients to lead the fight against ALS and search for a cure.” caucus, doubled federal funding, and support from groups like the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which gave the couple’s organisation a $453,000 grant in September. “Last year we made hope a word that was OK to use,” Wallach said. This is a very exciting time in “This year we have to make hope real.” the history of ALS. I think this Audaciousness is the only option, the couple says, in their race against is going to be the decade when the clock. ALS is changed from a rapidly Wallach logged 120,000 miles in the air last year, including travelling fatal disease to a more chronic to Washington, DC, in April, where he testifi ed before Congress and disease that we can manage asked legislators to amp up funding. “Last year, every time someone said, ‘Do you want to speak to us,’ — Sabrina Paganoni, faculty I said, ‘yes.’ Every time someone said, ‘There’s a meeting,’ I said, ‘I’m member at Healey Center going.’” he said. “Every time there was anything, I said, ‘Great, I’m on the for ALS plane.’” Until October, when Wallach fell ‘ while exiting a Lyft in Boston after ’ Tuesday, February 4, 2020 GULF TIMES 5 COVER STORY COMMUNITY swinging a heavy backpack onto his They take their daughters to swim back. Thirteen staples in his head at the neighbourhood pool and later, and after terrifying Abrevaya on vacation with friends. Wallach with a phone call, the two agreed wishes he could lift them above his he wouldn’t travel alone anymore. head to touch the ceiling, like their He’s maintaining momentum for uncle can. But he can lie on the fl oor the cause with more hours in his and play with them; he can listen to home offi ce and fewer in airports. them belt out songs on their purple In December, I AM ALS debuted karaoke machine. billboards around Times Square as They fi nd ways to lighten a part of its #CuresForAll campaign heavy subject.

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