Stony Brook ALS Center Dedicated in Honor of Chris Pendergast

Ride for Life founder Chris Pendergast has been living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, for 17 years. But not all those diagnosed with the disease have that experience, something Cindi Kokell knows firsthand.

In 1997, the East Northport resident lost her father, Gilbert Stewart, to ALS just a year after he was diagnosed with the disease. On Thursday, Kokell watched as Stony Brook University Medical Center formally dedicated its ALS treatment and research facility as the Christopher Pendergast ALS Center of Excellence.

"I find Chris to be an incredible, incredible man," Kokell said. "To consider himself blessed for the journey he's been given takes an extraordinary person. ... It's just such a horrible disease, and yet so many people who have been diagnosed with it carry themselves with such grace."

SBUMC said Pendergast, a Miller Place resident who is a former elementary school teacher in the Northport School District, was a driving force behind the establishment of the center in 2002. It is one of 34 centers nationwide certified by the ALS Association. Pendergast's foundation, Ride for Life, has raised more than $3.5 million for ALS patients and research, including $400,000 for the clinic at Stony Brook, which provides ALS patients with psychological and nutritional treatment along with respiratory, physical, speech, and occupational therapies.

Pendergast's case is unusual. Dr. Steven Strongwater, CEO of the hospital, described him as a rare long-term survivor of ALS, which affects about 30,000 people in the U.S. and sees about 5,000 new cases diagnosed each year.

Its most common patients are between the ages of 40 and 70, but it can strike younger patients as well. ALS was recently the cause of death of Sabrina Parker, a North Carolina 16-year-old whose mother and maternal grandmother both died from the same disease.

Already, one neurological study of ALS is under way at SBUMC – which Strongwater called the first of many to come.

Dr. Kenneth Kaushansky, dean of the School of Medicine, said ALS is believed to actually be multiple diseases which look similar.

"By understanding the origins, by using clues such as why some patients [live] one year, why some patients 20 years, we hope to be able to make a real impact," Kaushansky said.

On Thursday, the clinic's doctors, nurses and therapists joined hospital administrators, elected officials, and former New York Yankees pitcher David Cone, the honorary chairman of Ride for Life, in dedicating the ALS center in Pendergast's honor.

Many in the crowd at the Wang Center held back tears – or quietly let them out – but in at least one moment of levity, Pendergast's young grandson Patrick took the microphone.

"I like to play with my shoes," the toddler said. "Thank you."

Pendergast spoke first through his family members, then himself began to speak slowly, with his wife Christine holding the microphone for him.

"Truly our work has just begun," he said. "ALS will be beaten."