Abbey Umali presented Rep. Engel with Award

[Guest guest]

http://engel.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=24 & sectiontree=6,24 & itemid=2343

MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY ASSOCIATION'S 11-YEAR-OLD GOODWILL AMBASSADOR PRESENTS REP.

ENGEL WITH AWARD

05/11/10

Washington, DC--Congressman Eliot Engel recently met with 11-year-old Abbey

Umali, the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Goodwill Ambassador, who presented

the 11-term Congressman with " commemorative recognition of his tremendous work

on behalf of individuals with neuromuscular disease. "

Rep. Engel, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's

Subcommittee on Health, wrote and championed the MD-Care Reauthorization

legislation, which became law in 2008.

Rep. Engel wrote the D. Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Act (P.L. 110-361)

which promoted research at Centers of Excellence for Muscular Dystrophy. Rep.

Engel also authored the ALS Registry Act (P.L. 110-373) which established a

national registry for the collection and storage of data on those suffering from

ALS.

Miss Umali has Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease, one of the most common

inherited neurological disorders, affecting approximately 1 in 2,500 people in

the United States. The disease affects peripheral nerves, which lie outside the

brain and spinal cord and supply muscles and sensory organs in the limbs,

leading to progressive degeneration of the arms, legs, hands and feet. Rep.

Engel has been a leader in pressing the National Institutes of Health to advance

research into CMT.