MONTREAL - A former CFL star's valiant and very public battle against Lou Gehrig's disease is almost over.
Tony Proudfoot has bid farewell on his own terms, saying in a first-person story in the Montreal Gazette he doesn't expect to live much longer.
"Goodbyes are never easy, in my case they have been the hardest," the 61-year-old ex-Montreal Alouette wrote in the lengthy piece published Wednesday.
"But I'm working my way through them with the deepest, heartfelt thanks I can muster."
Proudfoot was diagnosed in May 2007 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative disease also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
But even as his health has steadily deteriorated, Proudfoot has championed ALS research and hasn't shied away from bringing attention to the incurable illness.
A former sportscaster and college professor, Proudfoot made a promise to live each day to the fullest, support his wife and family and focus on his relationships.
He says he's proud to have accomplished those goals.
"I write and speak about this disease and my adventure in positive, forward-looking phases and people see it as courageous and even heroic," Proudfoot wrote.
"But living the reality has been awful and downright frightening for me and my family."
When The Canadian Press met with Proudfoot at his suburban Montreal home in August, he was unable to speak, had to eat though a feeding tube and struggled to breathe.
"It is funny, once you need to struggle to breathe, there are not many other things that take up your thought," Proudfoot said in that interview.
Today, Proudfoot says he is now on a ventilator 22 hours a day and is disconnected just long enough to shuffle slowly to another room to attach himself to another machine.
Proudfoot has candidly chronicled his battle by writing an annual, Christmastime update in the Montreal newspaper.
In May, he wrote an article because the disease was progressing so quickly he wasn't sure he'd make it to the end of the year.
He still isn't sure.
"I know this will be my last December update," Proudfoot wrote. "Right now, I'm hanging on for Christmas, and it's a tough slog and not a guarantee."
Proudfoot thanked family and friends, calling the concern and compassion he's been shown unfathomable.
He also thanked the Montreal Alouettes, a team he has been linked with in some way for 40 years. The club's Grey Cup win this year was a huge positive for him in recent weeks.
"I want to thank the Alouettes for everything they've done," Proudfoot wrote. "You have no idea how much of a booster they have been to me."
ALS attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord and affects two in 100,000 people.
About 3,000 Canadians live with the disease and 80 per cent die anywhere from two to five years after diagnosis.
Proudfoot doesn't expect to see another year. He said there may be one more message from him, posthumously, through a ghostwriter to let people know his struggle is over.
"I've been blessed with so much love and support it is truly overwhelming," Proudfoot wrote.
"The concern and the compassion everyone has afforded me is amazing, unfathomable."
Proudfoot urged people to continue to donate to research efforts, even though it's too late for him.
The ALS Tony Proudfoot Fund, which the former defensive back hopes will someday save other Canadians, has so far raised $500,000 for research.
"Greater awareness and financial contributions for ALS research may someday be enough that the thousands who become afflicted with this malicious, sinister fate might have some hope," Proudfoot said.
