Dexter couple honored for their work for ALS awareness

DEXTER, Mo. -- Retired minister Vaughn Wright and his wife and caregiver, Nancy, have been honored by the St. Louis Regional Chapter of the ALS Association.

It's an honor, the Wright family said, for which they would rather not be in contention, but one that brings them great pride and appreciation for the community in which they live.

Vaughn Wright, who retired as minister of Dexter's First Christian Church on Easter Sunday 2009, has ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The disease is an aggressive one that over the past few years has worked to rob the body, but not the spirit, of the local minister.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.

Vaughn Wright was diagnosed with ALS in January 2006. The disease, which typically has a two- to five-year survival rate, forced Wright's early retirement from actively ministering.

The ALS Association's St. Louis Regional Chapter has proclaimed the Wrights a family that best exemplifies the spirit of "ALS Across America" for Southern Illinois and Southeast Missouri during ALS Awareness Month in May.

"Vaughn never gives up, cares deeply about others' problems, and wants you to share your concerns with him," said Mary Temmen-Riggs, the chapter's patient services director. "He loves everyone unconditionally and continues to want to minister to other people. Both Vaughn and Nancy continue to live their lives as normal by working together, even though they live with ALS. Their faith leads them."

Temmen-Riggs said the Wrights played a pivotal role in helping the St. Louis Regional Chapter to open an office in Sikeston, Mo., in January.

"The Wrights have been an inspiration to the chapter's staff and a driving force in the effort to open that office insuring that patients with ALS in rural Missouri communities will have better services," Temmen-Riggs said.