She rides not just for herself, but for her best friend. Emily Greggs is a sophomore at Indiana University who has a very special reason why she bikes in the Little 500 race. It’s all for her uncle, Chad Smith. Chad passed away in 2016, from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS. ALS is an extremely rare progressive neurodegenerative disease, with fewer than 20,000 cases per year. When someone is diagnosed with ALS, he or she no longer has the ability to control his or her muscle movement because motor neurons die from the brain to the spinal cord and throughout other muscles in the body. There is no cure for ALS and it is terminal. Although one’s mental state is still the same, the ability to control body movement is completely gone, so in a sense it’s like being trapped inside one’s own body. http://www.alsa.org/about-als/
The day after Chad got diagnosed with ALS during Emily’s freshman year of high school, he walked out of the doctor’s office and said to her, “We’ll not have one bad day.” This eventually became their slogan and made Emily realize how she cannot get upset about little things when her uncle is terminally ill. She says Chad remained a light in her life, bringing humor to everything he did. Because of his positivity, Emily started a philanthropic group in high school to honor Chad and anybody else diagnosed with ALS. She did a run on his behalf because he was a runner in high school and college.
Every time Emily goes to practice on the bike in her house, or ride on the track, or around the hills of Bloomington, she thinks to her herself, “I’m doing this for Chad.” To this day, Emily’s family members reiterate how much she is like her uncle. Emily says the training can be tough at times, but she knows Chad is watching over her and he would be pushing her to work even harder.
People who know Emily say that she is a hard worker and outstanding leader. “She was always helping us out and telling us what we needed to do when we weren’t sure, and was always funny and positive. After hearing the story about her uncle, it kind of pushed me over the edge to join the bike team and I’m so glad I did because I get to honor her and her family, which is something I really wanted to do,” said Claire Taylor, teammate and good friend of Greggs.
Right now, Emily is a pre-nursing major and hopes to help and care for other people like she did with Chad when he was sick. Her goal is to continue to keep riding in the Little 500 as long as she is here at IU and make the best of every day because that is what Chad showed her to do. Little 500 is less than 40 days away and Emily wants her and the Kappa Delta bike team to try to place in at least the top 5 because she wants to make her family and Chad proud. https://iusf.indiana.edu/little500/
