By William Tauro
This past Thursday night a benefit was thrown for Somerville Firefighter Roger Perez at Premiere on Broadway.
Hundreds of people, mostly brother and sister firefighters packed the nightclub to help Somerville Firefighters Local 76 raise funds to care for long time Somerville firefighter Roger Pérez.
After devoting 24 years of his life to service he was forced into early retirement due to Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, a rare, debilitating and incurable disease. PSP is not yet covered by the fire department as a work-related disability and the extensive. 24-hour care required is not covered by the city’s health insurance.
In the interim the hundreds of attendees gave any amount that they could give to make a significant impact and help Roger’s family pay for his extraordinary care while he is still with us.
The public was asked to please Vemno all contributions to firefighter Tom Kelley. In lieu of funds, businesses were also encouraged to provide gift certificates. services, merchandise and or anything that were raffled off at the fundraiser.
Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) is an adult-onset neurodegenerative disease that has no known cure, is readily mistaken for Parkinson’s disease and affects approximately 1/100.000 people. Initial loss of balance. tremors in the hands. changes in personality. weakness of eye movements, mouth. tongue, and throat. slurred speech, and difficulty swallowing lead eventually to loss of muscle and bodily function, and eventually death.
Visit http://www.psp.org for more information.
