Scott with ALS fights hard to earn degree in Finance

An inspiring story of overcoming health barrier by an individual 

This weekend, close to 200 students of Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship of Montana State University is going to get the final result of their hard work for the last two years in the form of their diplomas. For a particular student, this diploma means much larger as this indicates the culmination of a long struggle that many thought he would not be able to go through. Almost 4 years back, on a usual day, Scott realized that he is fainting while he was coming to attend his classes from his hostel. At that time he was a highly active senior finance major student at MSU, who was preparing for a match of softball, going to happen 1 week down the line. He realized the symptoms are not at all ignorable, as the muscles of his legs started cramping and felt he would lose his balance. “That incident was the very first time when I realized something was terribly wrong, but I just didn't want to believe its seriousness,” he said. Later, he had to believe that it is a symptom of some larger disorder, when his the then girlfriend and current wife noticed that his left triceps was jolting. He was still carrying on his studies and was all prepared to graduate when he decided to visit a doctor so that he can understand why he was having these types of symptoms. Almost two months down the line, doctors clarified to him that he is having amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease or ALS.

“The Neuro surgeon basically explained to me that I have at most two to four years to live and no treatment is available as such to really extend my years, so there was no point in working as a assignment helper” Thomas said. “I took a call that completing my diploma was not that important and I dropped out of university”. However, the destiny had some different plan for him, as one year later he had to resign his job as he was not in a state to continue anymore. Almost like a miracle, around that time the Congress effected the Steve Gleson Act, which ensured that special eye-gaze computers will be provided to university if there is a need of such specialized device.

“To state that my special computer has transformed my life would be an absolute understatement,” Thomas said. “I strongly recommend anyone who would need such device to contemplate on getting one”. With the support of various online classes and assignment help websites along with a strong dedication, he learned to use this new computer. As many individuals, both direct family members and beyond, have helped in numerous ways throughout his journey, Thomas denotes his achievement in the last a few years as a “team effort”. He says, “Once I was diagnosed with ALS, I never believed I would graduate. It will be an extremely proud moment for my loved ones and for me when on Saturday, I will be walking across the stage to take my diploma.”