He shouldn't be able to walk, yet he's skydiving
LAUREL, Del. -- In a small field on the outskirts of Laurel, Delaware, a crowd gathered to cheer on Tim Hill as he parachuted from the sky.
Descending from 13,500 feet in the air, to an outsider, Hill might have just looked like another skydiver fulfilling a dream.
But to the crowd gathered at Laurel Airport on Saturday, they knew he wasn’t just a thrill-seeker. That’s because a year-and-a-half ago, he was dreading a bed-ridden life.
In April 2014, Hill was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
A neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord without a cure, he was told up front by doctors his time was short. He'd lose use of his extremities and facilities and will eventually succumb to the disease.
“I was told I had zero chance of improvement,” Hill said, adding he had started experiencing symptoms a year-and-a-half before being diagnosed. His balance had already started to waiver and he'd begun getting debilitating cramps while walking, so the prognosis wasn’t a positive one.
“They told me to ‘get your final affairs in order,’ ” he added.
By June, he needed a cane to walk. Making the trip to his upstairs office at Wilgus Associates, a property management company, became more arduous as the weeks passed.
So his descent on a cloudy day in October was all the more important to the cause for which he has become a voice.
After months of physical therapy, Hill has walked a long road, both literally and metaphorically.
While the disease halted he and his wife Cindy’s dream of living the rest of their years operating a store on Bethany Beach’s boardwalk, he’s taken on a new purpose: to raise awareness and funds for survivors of ALS, albeit it in an unconventional way.