When the family all went to Disneyland in January 2017, her daughter noticed her mother slapping her foot on the ground when she walked.
When looking at a photo of the face almost as familiar as her own, her mother’s smile wasn’t quite her own.
Then, when her mother tripped on uneven pavement and didn’t put her hands out to protect against the fall, it raised enough alarm bells for Andrea Hedstrom because she knew that wasn’t normal for her mum, Sandra.
When the same thing happened at work and a coworker who witnessed the fall said Sandra again did not put her hands out to protect herself, Sandra’s husband, Andrea’s father, Neil Brownridge, was quite concerned and took Sandra to the family doctor.
The family doc sent Sandra for a nerve conduction test, which measures how quickly it takes for a nerve impulse to travel along a nerve. This is a test used in the diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
Mom Sandra was diagnosed with ALS in July 2017.
“Obviously my mum and dad were devastated to hear that,” Andrea said.
“Then straight away my dad started thinking of things he was going to need to help my mum and from my perspective the ALS society in New Zealand didn’t help. It failed my family. We needed the support and it wasn’t there.”
When Sandra’s quality of life was diminished to the point where she was completely incapacitated, she made the difficult decision not to prolong her ALS ravaged life.
“For my mum, when her speech went, she was using her cell phone to text to communicate and when her hands stopped working that was when she made the decision to stop eating and drinking,” Andrea explained. In 2018 there was no medical assistance in dying available in New Zealand, she added.
“I had always been told that when you stop eating and drinking you only have a couple of days and me being here in Canada and getting the phone call I was in an obvious panic to get home. My mum lasted 17 days. It was torture on the family.”
Sandra died in September 2018 at 60 years old.
Andrea was 40 when her mom died and it’s been seven years.
“But it doesn’t seem to get any easier,” Andrea said.
One of the challenges for Andrea during her mom’s illness was that she lived in Prince George and her parents lived in New Zealand.
Andrea found her way to Prince George as an exchange student at Kelly Road in 1996 where she met her future husband. She went back to New Zealand to go to university and then got married, moved back here in 2002 and has been here ever since.
Andrea said she knows it’s different here for those with ALS. She’s heard a lot of positive things about the ALS Society of BC, including from a friend who was diagnosed in her 40s with ALS.
“Anything she or her family needed the ALS Society of BC was there to help,” Andrea said.
“I wish that my family had that to say. That’s why I want to help with the Move to Cure ALS walk here in Prince George so that families don’t have to go through what we went through.”
Organizer of the walk, Kristi Francis, lost her mom, Bev Smith, to ALS in 2021.
Kristi who is friends with Andrea, asked her to help with the walk because they are such a small group and both these daughters know how important it is to get help for the entire family.
The Move to Cure ALS Walk is the signature fundraising event for the ALS Society of British Columbia held each year during ALS Awareness Month. This year's event is held on Sunday, June 22 at Lheidli T'enneh Memorial Park. The fun, family-friendly event sees people celebrate hope for a future without ALS, honour those who have been loved and lost and support those with the disease and their families.
“It’s really important for families to get the help they need for anything their family members require like wheelchairs, hospital beds, special chairs like the one my mum had to use to help her stand up and there’s a support group to help, too,” Andrea said.
“I hope everyone comes out to support the walk and learn more about ALS.”
All funds raised stay in B.C. and the Yukon to support people living with ALS, patient care and ALS research through Project Hope.
People can support the cause by participating in the event or donating until the end of June.
For more information visit www.WalkforALSPrinceGeorge.
