BEVERLY, Mass. — The man behind the world-famous Ice Bucket Challenge is issuing a new challenge.
Beverly’s Pete Frates and his family are setting up a foundation to help others who want to battle the deadly disease ALS at home.
The Ice Bucket Challenge brought huge awareness to ALS research and also raised a quarter of a billion dollars for it. Now, the Pete Frates Family Foundation aims to help families with loved ones who are fighting the illness.
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Pete’s mother, Nancy Frates, calls this her son’s lasting legacy.
"He’s the same Pete that he was 7 years ago when he sat at this kitchen table and told us we had an opportunity to change the world," said Pete's mother, Nancy Frates.
The new foundation launched with the help of a new four-minute video.
It shows the years when Pete was a healthy young boy and a college athlete, and it documents Pete’s life today, living with crippling ALS.
It is not easy to watch, but it is reality.
And Nancy Frates said it's a bitter and expensive reality.
[Read: Pete Frates struggling to keep up with health care costs]
The family is hoping the foundation will help ease the financial burden ALS families face, providing round the clock care, at home.
"The thought that people are choosing to die and leaving their families because they don’t want to put them through a financial burden is absolutely unacceptable, it’s unacceptable," Nancy Frates said.
It will soon be seven years since Pete Frates was diagnosed with ALS.
Nancy Frates said Pete’s doctors told her he is in extra innings now. She hopes the foundation will help other families get there, too.
"Mentally, he is so tough and he is so aware and he is so loving. He will continue to do that. He feels that is his mission on earth," she said.
The family is hoping to raise $5 million dollars.
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