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Boardman event aims to raise Alzheimer’s awareness
By Bob Jackson
BOARDMAN
It seemed ironic that participants in Saturday’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s had to walk past a sign that said, “Enter the nightmare.”
The sign, of course, had nothing to do with the event, which aims to promote awareness about Alzheimer’s disease. It’s actually a prop for Boardman Park’s annual Hallo-ween fright activities.
But for those who’d come out to walk in the morning chill because their lives have been affected by Alzheimer’s, it seemed about right.
“It’s a terrible disease, and the lives of the entire family are altered with the diagnosis,” said Helen Paes, community development coordinator for the Alzheimer Association’s Greater East Ohio Area Chapter, located in Canfield.
She said the walk, held each fall, is the association’s largest fund-raising event.
Participants raise money through pledges, and the money goes toward raising awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s care, support and research.
The goal for this year’s local event was $42,000.
Paes said it’s estimated there are approximately 16,000 people in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties living with Alzheimer’s, which is the sixth-leading cause of death among people over 65 in the United States.
It’s not always the elderly who are affected, though.
Cliff Jamieson of Struthers was in his early 50s when he was diagnosed. He taught elementary math and science in Struthers, and had been a football coach in Struthers, Liberty and Girard schools.
“It started with headaches,” said Jamieson, 56, who was forced to retire from education after 30 years because of Alzheimer’s. “That was the first thing I noticed. And then confusion.”
He would be grading math papers and suddenly the numbers on the pages just didn’t make sense any longer, said his wife, Marybeth, 54, who works in a medical office.
“I noticed that something was wrong, but we couldn’t figure it out,” she said. “When he finally said he needed to go to a doctor, I thought it might be adult attention deficit disorder or something like that. Never in a million years did I think it would be Alzheimer’s.”
Cliff said the disease seems to be limited to the back of his brain, affecting his memory and cognitive skills, but not so much his motor skills and functions. For that, he counts himself lucky.
“If I wake up in the morning and I’m alive, that’s all I can ask for,” he said.
Cliff was diagnosed more than three years ago, but this was the first time the Jamiesons took part in the walk.
“I wanted to do it last year, but he wasn’t quite ready,” Marybeth said.
This year they came out with nearly 30 family and friends, all wearing white T-shirts that said, “Walking for Cliff” on the front. The team raised some $3,500 through pledges.
Though Cliff Jamieson is still able to live at home, many other Alzhiemer’s patients aren’t so fortunate. Bill Burns of Canfield had to make the difficult decision to place his wife, Lynne, in a residential facility because he could no longer care for her at their home. For the past year and a half, she has been a resident of Clare Bridge of Austintown, which also brought a team of walkers made up of residents and their families, as well as staff members.
“I didn’t want to do it, but that decision was kind of forced on me,” said Burns, 76, who retired 20 years ago from General Motors. “It’s a drastic change, but you survive.” He said Lynne, also 76, was a registered nurse. Her short-term memory is primarily what Alzheimer’s has taken from her, he said.
“It’s like a thief in the night that comes in and steals their memory,” said Vanessa Montgomery, life enrichment coordinator at Clare Bridge. “They look at their own family, and they don’t know who these people are. It’s a sad, sad disease.”
Montgomery said this was the fourth year Clare Bridge has brought a team of walkers to participate in the Alzheimer’s Association event.
Pat Gordon of Youngstown has a 63-year-old sister, Susan Cartier, who is also a resident at Clare Bridge. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in her late 50s, Cartier has been at Clare Bridge for four years, Gordon said.
“She was in the military, and then she was a boss for Ohio Bell,” Gordon said of her sister, who was living near Cleveland when she began noticing problems with her memory.
“She went to the Veterans Administration hospital up there, and the doctors told us that she needed to move down here to be closer to family,” Gordon said. “She bought a house and lived on her own at first, and then things just progressed too far and she couldn’t be alone any more. Clare Bridge has been wonderful.”