A Retired Tupelo Police Officer is Battling Lou Gehrig’s Disease

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) – A long-time Northeast Mississippi law enforcement officer says the support of his family and his faith in God helps him confront his battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Here is Ken Hawes and his family at home in Satillo.

Ken retired from the Tupelo Police Department in January of 2018, after nearly 30-years on the force.

In 2017, he was named Law Enforcement Officer of the Year by Crime Stoppers of Northeast Mississippi, but after looking forward to retirement and slowing things down, this past fall, things changed.

“He started having speech trouble in September of last year and then we went to the doctor finally in November. When he saw the doctor, he was pretty quick to recognize ALS and several tests and a lot of things he had to go through to confirm that diagnosis, but they did confirm that diagnosis,” says wife, Vermon Hawes.

“Of course, we got over the initial shock of being diagnosed with ALS and luckily, I have a wonderful family that take good care of me,” says Ken Hawes.

Ken Hawes says his faith is very important.

“It’s a simple story. I love God with all my heart, all my soul, and this disease may take my body, but it will not take my soul because it belongs to Jesus Christ.”

“We know that no matter what comes, there’s going to be happy days and there’s going to be some tough days, but we know he’s already there and he’s going to take care of us.”

Ken and Vermon have had the blessing of two daughters, Madison and Mary Christian.

“We were shocked, you know, we’re young daughters and at this age, we didn’t think that we would have to go through something like this at such a young age and even our father and our mother being such a young age too, so we were shocked. We still are, but we’re dealing with it. We’re thankful for the support and for the Lord giving us strength to get through it.”

“Yeah, I mean we we pretty devastated, but somehow God has given us strength to get through this. I mean, so that’s our only source of strength.”

There will be a spaghetti luncheon fundraiser for Ken Hawes on Sunday, March 24th, at Faith Baptist Church in Saltillo, at noon.