Not far from the beauty industry is the fashion industry, where the brand Harts & Pearls has developed products to put the focus on ALS awareness. Earlier this year, Harts & Pearls founder Desiree Burgess learned that she had a personal connection to ALS when her father, Rick Burgess, was diagnosed with the disease.

Desiree Burgess recently wrote on her blog: “Because ALS will soon take my Dad’s voice, mobility and eventually his life, I asked to sit down with him and as we talked we recorded our conversation. I told him, ‘Dad, selfishly I am doing this for me. I want this memory, I want this conversation and I want something I can keep forever. Soon you won’t be able to talk, and the gift of this conversation will be something I can cherish forever.’”

Wanting to do more to find a cure for ALS, Burgess developed products that join with Jacknut Apparel’s #ComeTogether collection. You can purchase the Harts & Pearls items—Fight ALS shirt, Beat ALS shirt and #ComeTogether headband—on the Harts & Pearls website, and all funds from the collection will be donated to battle ALS.

Despite the globally popular Ice Bucket Challenge, which raised needed funds to fight ALS, the progressive neurodegenerative disease continues to devastate, with 15 new cases identified every day in the U.S., totaling 6,000 American diagnoses each year, according to the ALS Association. As many as 20,000 Americans are living with ALS at any given time; 60% are men, the average age at diagnosis is 55 and only half live more than three years after diagnosis.

The ALS Association suggests three ways to fight ALS:

Walk. Participate in your community’s Walk to Defeat ALS program.
Advocate. Lend your voice and your personal story to work toward greater governmental financial support.
Register. If you know of someone suffering from ALS, encourage him or her to sign onto the ALS Registry, which is the only population-based registry in the U.S. that collects information to help scientists learn more about who gets ALS and its causes.

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