Wilson is going public with his diagnosis of a rare form of muscular dystrophy, and is putting up $100 million to help find a cure
The 67-year-old, mind you, isn’t bidding farewell to the multiple business ventures he’s involved with, including owning almost 11 million shares of Lululemon, plus an $800-million-or-so chunk of equity in Amer Sports Oyji — a privately held sporting goods giant with a host of well-known brands beneath its umbrella — as well as Low Tide Properties Ltd., a Vancouver real estate company with holdings north and south of the border.
Giving up the Grind isn’t a sore point for Wilson, so much as an admission that the rare form of muscular dystrophy he was diagnosed with at age 32, and had never spoken of publicly until Monday, has rapidly progressed from being a condition he has tried to ignore to one that seems determined to put him in a wheelchair.
There is no cure for it, at least not yet. Wilson, whose smile is still intact even as his body falls apart, is committing $100 million to fund a new venture, Solve FSHD, with the goal of finding a cure within five years.To accomplish the job, he is asking scientists, biotech and biopharma companies, muscular degeneration specialists and other researchers working in similar muscular dystrophy streams to get in touch with his new organization.
“The idea behind the prize is to bring everyone out of the woodwork, even people with crazy ideas,” Wilson said. Physicality has always been core to his identity, but the disorder has deprived him of being able to achieve the so-called runner’s high through exercise. This is not a trifling thing for someone who used to complete Iron Man triathlons and climb mountains for kicks. Instead, he now meditates multiple times daily, and said he can still achieve the high without breaking a sweat.