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Documantary show ALS life of former NFL legend Steve Gleason
Heart-wrenching documentary captures brutal daily struggle of former NFL legend Steve Gleason as ALS freezes up his body
- Steve Gleason, 39, was diagnosed with ALS in 2011 at the age of 34
- Weeks later his wife discovered she was pregnant with their first child
- Gleason decided to film every day to show his son what he was like
- The movie follows the family for 5 years, shows their son's birth, Gleason losing speech, tensions in their family relationships - everything
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We may all know the effects of ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.
But few of us truly understand how brutal, humiliating and painful it is for sufferers and their families on a daily and nightly basis.
Steve Gleason, the former New Orleans Saints legend, was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease in 2011 at the age of 34.
And now, in an unflinching documentary released today, he lets viewers in on every moment of his life as his body went from peak fitness to freezing up until he could no longer walk, speak, breathe, or even poop independently.
Now aged 39, he has beaten to odds of survival, which is usually two years after diagnosis, though it can sometimes stretch to five years.
Amid his round-the-clock work to support other sufferers - both financially and emotionally - he continues to fight for survival to spend as much time as he can with his wife Michel and their five-year-old son Rivers.
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The movie, 'Gleason', started as a series of home videos.
Gleason was diagnosed with ALS just weeks before his wife Michel found out she was pregnant.
As doctors explained that his body would likely freeze up within a couple of years, the 34-year-old decided to film their family life so that his son could see what he was like before ALS.
Five years later, the two-hour movie - edited down from 1,300 hours of footage - tells a heart-wrenching and awe-inspiring father-son tale.
It also captures the devastating horror that every ALS family endures as you watch the disease take hold, tensions erupt in their family relationships, and all other daily struggles of adapting to a life they never expected.
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