A breakthrough in the understanding of what causes the debilitating and deadly disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis was announced by scientists at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago earlier this week.

The research hits close to home for Aimee Chamernik, of Grayslake, a wife and mother of three children. She was just 33 when she was diagnosed in 2004 with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. Her reaction to the breakthrough was featured in a story on WGN News at 9 Monday evening.

• Breakthrough announced in ALS research -- WGN www.wgntv.com

"My family and I have been involved with the Les Turner Foundation for ALS, which is associated with Northwestern University, since I was diagnosed. They were the ones who contacted me about the interview," said Chamernik. 

"Instead of thinking maybe there will be a treatment to manage the disease for my children's grandchildren, now I think it could be just a matter of years. I don't know that I will be helped, but I'm so glad to know that the path is there for others. And it gives me a little bit of hope that I didn't have before," Chamernik told Patch. 

Until recently, Chamernik and her husband, Jim, had belonged to a support group of married couples in their 40s coping with an ALS diagnosis, all of whom had young children.

"This news is also bittersweet because all of our support group members with ALS have passed away from the disease," said Chamernik. "They would have been so happy to know about this — we would have probably had a group get-together to celebrate."

For the last seven years, Chamernik has been under the care of one of the lead researchers responsible for the breakthrough.

"My doctor is Dr. Teepu Siddique from Northwestern, who has been working on ALS research for 25 years, hoping for this, and it finally happened," she said. 

Chamernik calls herself "lucky" to have survived thus far a disease that claims the life of 50 percent of those diagnosed within three years.

"The toughest part for me has been feeling I've become a burden to my family," she said. "I was always the mom who organized the parties at school and volunteered at church. Now it really gets to me that my kids have to help me even to sit up sometimes. If there is a silver lining, it's that our children have become more responsible. They have a compassion and awareness of other people's differences on the outside and realize we're all the same on the inside."

Chamernik continues to focus on the positive.

"And, of course, I am happy to still be here," she said. "I have come to learn to appreciate the little things."