During Hawking's last year at Oxford, he noticed he had become very clumsy. For example, he would trip walking up and down stairs and his speech started to become slurred. These symptoms got progressively worse. His family began to notice these changes in Hawking and took him to the hospital. At the age of 21 Hawking received the unfortunate news that he had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as ALS. "ALS, which is also known as a motor-neuron disease—and colloquially as Lou Gehrig's disease in the U.S.—is a neuro-degenerative disease" (Harmon). Hawking was told that he would not live to see his 25th birthday. Although ALS immobilized Hawking, he still beat the odds and outlived the doctor's diagnosis. According to Hawking, "Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change" (Hawking), and I believe this diagnosis showed much intelligence.

This picture depicts a younger Hawking with his wife and oldest son Robert.
https://theeditorsjournal.wordpress.com/2014/06/13/stephen-hawking

    ALS didn't seem to phase Hawking that much. "[Due to his previous statements] he has a pretty positive mental outlook" (Harmon). Some people believe this is why he has lived so much longer than predicted. ALS may have stricken Hawking to a wheelchair, but it has not slowed down his mind and his incredulous ideas about the world.Some doctors believe that he was able to live so long due to his early diagnosis (McCoy). Normally symptoms of ALS don't arise until around age 50 or later.

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