Christopher Burke\u2019s documentary No Ordinary Campaign \u2014 out today on Amazon Prime \u2014 is one of countless films to be delayed by Covid. But the pandemic hit the documentary especially hard because it is about Brian Wallach, an Obama administration veteran facing ALS \u2014 and time is not on an ALS patient\u2019s side.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People with the neurological disease generally live from two to five years after a diagnosis. And Brian Wallach was only given six months to live. He was diagnosed with ALS on the day he and wife, Sandra Abrevaya, came home from the hospital with their second daughter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The couple had faith in institutions\u2019 ability to help people: They met on former President Obama\u2019s 2008 campaign and worked together in the White House. The young father was only 37, but in an instant, he didn\u2019t know if he would live to see 40. The couple expected a strong safety net to guide them through their fight with the disease \u2014 but instead they found a dysfunctional system that did little more than prepare ALS patients for death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The couple refused to accept the dire situation and used their political know-how to create I AM<\/a> ALS, an advocacy group<\/a> to help create a cure for the disease and mobilize and gather patients who were fighting for their lives without support. Wallach and Sandra are actively promoting the film, and he has kept his sense of humor:<\/p>\n\n\n\n