Fields Receives Award From LiveLikeLou

Daryl FieldsPittsburgh, October 6, 2022 -- Daryl P. Fields, MD, PhD, PGY-5 neurosurgery resident at the University of Pittsburgh, has received the inaugural LiveLikeLou Foundation (LLLF) Post-Doctoral Fellowship, a two-year $150,000 grant to fund his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research project studying spinal cord stimulation in the treatment of motor deficits.

The LiveLikeLou Foundation is a national non-profit organization with the singular purpose to ‘Leave ALS Better Than We Found It.’ The foundation was established by Neil and Suzanne Alexander of Pittsburgh soon after Neil was diagnosed with ALS in 2011. Their aim was to raise awareness about ALS and support scientific research to find a cure. 

The Alexanders named the fund in honor of New York Yankee great Lou Gehrig whose legendary baseball career was cut short when diagnosed with ALS in 1939. Gehrig gave the iconic ‘Luckiest Man’ speech at Yankee Stadium at his retirement from baseball where he declared himself the ‘luckiest man on the face of this Earth’ and continued to live his life with courage, humility and strength. He would later die in 1941.

Neil Alexander understood that the efforts of LiveLikeLou would not save his own life, but in the establishment of the organization he said, “We want to do this for the next guy, the next father who starts to get a twitch in his left arm.” He wanted his lasting legacy to be that he left ALS better than he found it. Neil passed away in 2014, but the foundation that he and Suzanne started has grown into a national entity to continue to raise ALS awareness, support individuals with ALS, and help raise funds to find a cure.