One Man’s Diagnosis Spurs Movement To Cure ALS In ‘For Love And Life: No Ordinary Campaign’ – Contenders TV: Doc + Unscripted
27.04.2024 - 19:09
/ deadline.com
Brian Wallach was in his mid-30s, a highly successful lawyer and veteran of the Obama White House when his life took a sudden and dramatic turn. He visited a doctor for a persistent cough and mentioned he had also been experiencing muscle tremors and weakness in one hand. Soon he came away with a devastating diagnosis: the neurodegenerative disorder ALS. He was given six months to live.
But he and his wife Sandra refused to accept his fate passively. The story of how they have fought to improve the lives of people with ALS and ramp up funding for research towards a cure is told in the Prime Video documentary For Love and Life: No Ordinary Campaign.
“Really that’s what it’s about, is building this movement to accelerate progress, to keep people here longer, to improve the quality of life and to unlock these scientific answers that can help people in so many ways,” director Christopher Burke said during an appearance at Deadline’s Contenders TV: Doc + Unscripted event.
Burke’s role on the film stemmed from a long relationship with Wallach. They have known each other since they were undergraduates.
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“In 2018 I heard from him about this diagnosis. He reached out to a bunch of us from college and let people know,” Burke recalled. “And I think the natural instinct when you hear something like that from an old friend is you want to help. Not being an advanced neurosurgeon or anything, I couldn’t help in the medical way, but I kind of raised my hand and said, ‘Hey, this is what I do’ — this being filmmaking production – ‘and if there’s ever anything I can do to help, let me know.’”
Burke continued, “And a few months later I got a call from him, and he said,
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