Optimistic outlook

Sarasota resident Kevin Swan was honored with the Stephen Heywood Patients Today Award Oct. 3, at the ALS Therapy Development Institute’s ninth annual Leadership Summit in Cambridge, Mass., for his involvement within the ALS community. Swan was diagnosed with ALS in 2012 at the age of 31. He founded A Life Story Foundation to raise awareness and fundraise toward research for a cure. ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.