Former Senate leader Marc Basnight acknowledges in an interview with the N.C. Coastal Federation that he has Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal neuromuscular disease.
Basnight was the state's most powerful senator for nearly two decades. He won re-election in 2010, but resigned his seat before the session started and Democrats began their new existence as the minority party.
Basnight, a Manteo Democrat, had been diagnosed a few years earlier with a degenerative nerve disease that left him unsteady on his feet and his speech slowed.
He said he said in January 2011 that he was resigning for health reasons, but said that his doctors had not identified his disease.
Comments
well damn
February 13, 2012 - 8:13pm — outhousecatI couldn't care less about Basnight as a politician. But I'm sorry to see that he has been diagnosed with ALS. ALS is the devil, for sure. I hope Basnight is able to live as long and productively as possible.
This is a horrible disease that needs to be conquered. Maybe Basnight can help bring attention to the need for research to combat this slow killer. Prayers, Mark.
Marc Basnight
February 13, 2012 - 6:19pm — Isaac136I suspect that no one who met him could ever forget having done so. I am very glad to say that I had the privilege.
A Time For Support and Prayers
February 13, 2012 - 4:42pm — ProctorIt is a time for partisan politics to be put aside so that support and prayers can be offered for a great North Carolinian who helped "put Dare County on the map" for the entire state while sharing in the progressive leadership of North Carolina state government for several productive decades for the benefit of people from Manteo all the way to Murphy.
It was a personal privilege to meet Marc Basnight in Dare County in 1977 when he was an up-and-coming community leader even before he went to Raleigh for his tenure as an effective and visionary state legislator and eventually president pro-tem of the North Carolina Senate.
May he be comforted in knowing he has earned the enduring gratitude of the people of the Old North State.
David P. McKnight
A grim reminder..
February 13, 2012 - 4:01pm — Guitarman51Well said, sir.
A GRIM REMINDER THAT.....
February 13, 2012 - 2:51pm — dubiousVery true.
A Grim Reminder that.....
February 13, 2012 - 12:16pm — AgentPierceA grim reminder that illness and injury are very much non-partisan. :-(