Power of One Drives ALS Survivor

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Harry Gianneschi, 65, was a pretty impressive scholar and athlete in his heyday.

The Ph.D. retired as Vice President of California State University at Fullerton.

"I was in sports in high school, and then I was a runner," Harry quietly explains to me with a smile as he remembers the good ol' days.

"I ran some marathons ... you could almost call me a 'gym rat!' "

Harry now "walks" around while seated in a wheelchair.

His speech is soft and slurred.

His movements -- limited.

All of these are outward signs of the debilitating and deadly disease ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).

ALS, commonly called Lou Gehrig's Disease, attacks the body's central nervous system, which controls voluntary muscle movements.

Harry's been in a race against time for the past nine years, which is pretty amazing -- considering doctors only gave him about two years to live.

"After the shock of being diagnosed wore off," Harry tells me, "I went right back to doing what I've always done -- exercise."

You'll find Harry and Pat (his bride of nearly 45 years and also a Ph.D.) working out 7 days a week at the Flagler Center Family YMCA.

That's where I met the two before their midday workout.

Harry told me more about why he believes he's found the answer to living a longer life.

"Out of all the various different treatments they've given me for ALS, which are tens of thousands of dollars," he reveals, "the best work I have is the YMCA, no question."

"If you don't use them, you lose them," Harry says very frankly about the body's muscles.

He says when he's not in the gym, he's constantly exercising all day long at home.

Hear him explain why and the reason's clear.

"If I stop exercising, then my arms, within a week or 2, they'll be gone," he says quite bluntly.

"If I don't exercise my legs, within a week or 2, they'll be gone. So I have to keep doing this on a constant basis, because if I don't I'll be in a bed and I don't want that."

"Exercise is something everyone should do whether they're healthy or not," he quickly exclaims.

Why is Harry this week's Power of One report?

Because his focus and determination have been a huge inspiration to everyone he comes in contact with -- especially at the gym.

Watch my video news story attached to this web page to hear exactly what other gym patrons think of the man who motivates them.

"I knew that with the ALS, my years were going to be numbered," Harry says without hesitation.

"I decided that I wanted to have as much quality [of life] as I could, and I knew that staying mobile would help that quality."

If you're still not convinced exercise is the proverbial "fountain of youth," just ask his wife.

Six months after Harry was diagnosed with ALS, Pat was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

"I thought I had had a mini stroke," Pat recalls with the same expression of surprise she had back them.

She tells me she lost the use of her entire left side.

"Tests showed I had MS and doctors gave me horrible medicine," she recounts.

"I stopped taking it two years ago and joined my husband's daily exercise routine, and it's really helped."

As she sits next to her husband she's very expressive, using her hands and arms when she talks.

You'd never know she had ever mobility problems.

"We don't just sit at home going, 'Oh no! What's going to happen to us,'" Pat says, throwing up her hands.

"Exercise is just our lifestyle now ... and it's been pretty great actually," she says with a loving smile and glance at her husband.

Harry says very matter-of-factly, "We both have major diseases, and we just decided to combat them the way we always have everything, which is to stick together and keep working out."

I asked Harry what he thinks about being such a positive influence in so many people's lives.

"It scares me," he says with a playful laugh. "I don't think I'm doing anything unusual. I'm doing what I've done all my life, and that's exercise."

One of Harry's greatest motivators for putting up such a hard fight against ALS is knowing he can still hang out with his grandchildren, one of whom lives here on the First Coast.

"My children and grandchildren; they all belong to the Y!" he says, obviously tickled that they're all very health conscious.

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