By chance, by choice, by circumstance or happenstance. In our case, Tillman Tough was born of necessity; a need brought forth by the desire of a little boy, our son John, to do something, anything to help his father, Todd Tillman, who is dying of an incurable, untreatable disease, ALS. You see, when you teach your children to work hard, to fight for what they believe in, and to pray to a higher po
wer for miracles that can and do happen, and then proceed to hide your diagnosis, your hardship, your pain, it feels hypocritical, counter-productive, wrong. John knew this, he reminded us of this, and he urged us not only to try and make a difference for our family, but also to make a difference for every family that has been, will be, or even could be diagnosed with this deadly disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. As any parent can attest to, or any person who has ever known love can attest to we, as human beings, will do anything for those we love. My husband and I can do NOTHING to beat this disease, but we can do something to see that our son Johns’ dream be realized, that a cure or treatment for ALS be found. As our son John implored of me every day during August, 2015: “Mom, if we don’t take the Ice Bucket Challenge, they’ll never find a cure!” I thought only of myself. My heart was broken, I couldn’t do it. My husband, my lover, the father of my children and my best friend of 23 years had been diagnosed and sentenced to death June 30th, 2015. How could we possibly post an Ice Bucket Challenge? How could we share our pain, our heartbreak, our helplessness? As those closest to me know, August 29th, 2015 was the breaking point. John thought we had missed our window. The Ice Bucket Challenge only runs in August, and although August of 2014 made a really big SPLASH and a great WAVE of momentum resulting in unprecedented awareness and research dollars for ALS, August of 2015 didn’t have the same impact. John was heartbroken. How could we NOT HAVE TAKEN THE CHALLENGE – especially now when we needed it most?!? How could we not HAVE DONE SOMETHING – the ONLY THING he knew of – to help his father?!? After many tears I had had enough. My husband is dying, our family is faltering under the enormity of this realization, and our son needed, wanted, begged to do something substantial to insure no other little boy, girl, sister, brother, husband, wife, mother, father, has to feel this helplessness again. So TILLMAN TOUGH was born. 365 days of the Ice Bucket Challenge designed to spread awareness of ALS – a deadly disease that is diagnosed in someone every 90 minutes of every single day. It’s time to toughen up, face the facts and find a cure. TILLMAN TOUGH ‘til we find a cure.
