Ellen Smailes speaking with CFJC on June 11, 2024 ahead of the Move to Cure ALS event at Riverside Park. (Image Credit: Adam Donnelly / CFJC Today)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

2024 MOVE TO CURE ALS

Kamloops to mark 15 years of ALS fundraising with annual Move to Cure ALS

Jun 11, 2024 | 7:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — This weekend, the ALS Society of BC will be hosting its Move to Cure ALS in Kamloops. Money raised through the event goes toward ALS patient care and research in BC and the Yukon.

ALS is a motor neuron disease, commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and currently has no cure. It started as the Walk to End ALS, now in 2024, it’s the Move to Cure ALS, and it’s become a regular event for many Kamloops families.

Ellen Smailes got involved after her son Clayton’s diagnosis. Prior to his passing in 2009, Clayton Smailes was a news videographer with CFJC TV.

“We became volunteers the first year we had the walk, and here I am 15 years later,” Smailes says.

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The Smailes family was a key part of establishing a local fundraising event. Even amid his battle with the disease, Smailes remembers her son as a confident, outgoing person with a knack for talking to people.

“Clayton spent his whole growing up life in 4-H. And [participants] learned to do public speaking and all of those things, and he was a natural at it,” she describes, adding, “He loved the camera work, absolutely loved it. It was exciting, very challenging sometimes, but he thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Money generated through the Move to Cure ALS also supports Project Hope, which is a research and patient care initiative out of UBC in Vancouver. Project Hope is working to provide opportunities for people to access clinical trials, offer care options and eventually determine the cause and a cure for ALS.

“For me, it’s heartwarming to be able to stay involved and create as much money as we can,” Smailes says of the years of involvement with the local fundraiser.

Much of what keeps participants coming out each year is that connection with others who have also been affected by ALS in some way, and faith that research teams will one day find a cure.

Registration for the Move to Cure ALS can be done online (click here), or in-person on Saturday, June 15 starting at 9:30 a.m., with the event starting at 10:30 a.m. from Riverside Park.