The PALS & CALS Advisory Council (PCAC) is charged with helping the Board of Directors (BOD) of the International Alliance of ALS/MND Associations consider and include in its work the wide-ranging opinions and ideas of people with ALS/MND and caregivers to people with ALS/MND from across the globe.
Council Members
Sara Feldman, Chair
ALS Hope Foundation, USA
Sara Feldman, PT, DPT, ATP is the Clinical Liaison for the ALS Hope Foundation in Philadelphia, PA, USA. Dr. Feldman is the Physical Therapist and Assistive Technology Professional at the MDA/ALS Center of Hope, where she has been serving people with ALS/MND for more than 20 years. In addition to clinical care, she is involved in clinical trials, education and the use of assistive technology. She is Co-Chair of the Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS) Physical Therapy Committee and is the Clinical Evaluator Representative on the NEALS Executive Committee. She has been an active delegate to the Alliance since 2007 and has participated in three partnerships, with ABrELA, Iceland MND Association and IsrALS. She is committed to ensuring the Partnership Programme continues to expand and grow. In 2015, Sara assumed the role of the Co-Chair of the Allied Professionals Forum. Sara brings a clinician’s perspective and experience to the Alliance Board and until there is a cure, will continue to work towards improving care.
Phil Green
California, USA
A loving husband to his wife Jennifer, Phil is also a dedicated father to four children (Arianne, Hunter, Parker, and Whitney). Four years after doing the Ice Bucket Challenge, Phil was diagnosed with ALS in August of 2018 and immediately dedicated himself to making a difference in the fight against this horrific disease. Phil is active in helping multiple ALS organizations and institutions (Team Gleason, I AM ALS, Augie’s Quest, ALS TDI, ALS Cure Project, UW Medicine) with promoting ALS legislation and policy issues, increasing awareness and raising funds to find effective treatments and cures, and providing much needed support services for ALS patients and families. He was privileged to be a Patient Fellow at the 2019 International Symposium on ALS/MND and has also served as a Consumer Reviewer for the DoD ALS Research Program. Phil is a graduate of the University of Washington where he was on the 1991 National Championship UW Football team. He has spent the past 25 years building a career in developing technology solutions for brands such as Sony, Hewlett Packard, and Home Depot.
Marcela Santos
Bogotá, Colombia
Marcela is a Psychologist with Masters in Social Inclusion of People with Disabilities. Her dad lived with ALS for 16 years, and she was one of his primary caregivers. Her dad had a very positive outlook on ALS and the way he embraced it was passed to his daughter. Her father, Alfredo Santos recently passed away on February 8th 2020. She has dedicated all her academic and professional life to the care of people with disabilities in Colombia in public and private entities and NGOs. She has been a volunteer psychologist providing psychotherapy at no cost to PALS and their CALS in Colombia since 2014. Besides her academic history and professional experience, the personal experience with her dad, allows her to give a much more meaningful care to PALS & CALS.
Angélique van der Lit-van Veldhuizen
Netherlands
In February 2018, Angélique was diagnosed with ALS. Angélique joined the Board of Directors for ALS Patients Connected (APC) in the Netherlands. As a member of the Board she represents the voice of patients living with ALS.
Angélique has always had a passion for music and travelling. Depsite being in a wheechair she continues to enjoy both.
Angélique resides in the Netherlands with her husband and 2 children.
By joining the International Alliance of ALS/MND Associations PALS and CALS Council Angélique hopes a cure or treatment for ALS can be found faster.
Bruce Virgo
Edinburgh, Scotland
Bruce is an international maritime lawyer of over 40 years practice in Australia, England/Wales & Scotland. Australian by birth, he now lives with his family in Scotland. Bruce was diagnosed with MND in 2014 when Head of Shipping at the London office of an English law firm. In May 2016 his condition forced him to give up a full-time role. He remains a partner, but only in a consultative role. Since 2014 Bruce has assisted with fundraising and contributing to various research projects concerning MND, primarily through Edinburgh’s Anne Rowling Clinic – including the MND-SMART drug trial. He is active in raising awareness of MND as a patient advocate on social media as well as attending the 2018 ALS/MND Symposium as a Patient Fellow and again in 2019 as an independent advocate. He is keenly interested in both increased global collaboration of efforts to fight MND as well as attaining a unified voice for PALS & CALS. Although now unable to participate in most of his outdoor loves (surfing, diving water polo & hill walking) he retains a supporter’s love of rubgy union.
Lee Millard
Hampshire, England
Lee is a software engineer and Salesman, by trade, with over 30 years experience in computer technology that started in the early days of electronic communications in the 1980s. After being diagnosed in 2014 with MND he decided to stop work, partly because of the sheer demands of travelling, but largely because he simply didn’t know how long he had left! Such is this disease’s reputation. Before embarking in the software world, as a Student Biologist at Imperial College, London, in the 1980s, Lee indulged his mind as a keen scientist. It is against this backdrop that he often writes in his blog on the supreme challenges our researchers face with the complexity of the disease, associated research trials and the inevitable, but totally understandable, clamours for approvals of as yet unproven treatment candidates. He genuinely believes that today, we are on the cusp of major breakthroughs that will lead to MND becoming, certainly for some forms of our disease, a manageable chronic condition within just a couple of years. Yes it’s that close.
He works closely with the MND Association in the UK and his primary interests lie in raising awareness and promoting increased research funding. His blog is largely a light hearted read but also contains research posts which he hopes provides the community, and, sadly, the ever revolving door of new members, with information that is helpful on their journey. Although unable to take part in most of his old favourite activities such as skiing, running and walking, Lee is still able to cycle a recumbent trike, and he recommends it highly for anyone with MND. His motto is “No one knows what tomorrow brings”