The co-chairs of this year’s annual Alzheimer’s Association’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s — Barb Binkley, owner of Brighton’s Cooper & Binkley Jewelers, and Don and Sandie Cortez of Howell’s First Impression Print & Marketing — have experience with Alzheimer’s in their families.
The walk is set for Oct. 2 on Main Street in downtown Brighton, and people are also encouraged to participate online, or within their own communities and neighborhoods if they can’t attend the in-person gathering due to the current pandemic.
Don Cortez’s mother and father were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and dementia respectively, and his mother died in 2019. He has become involved because he wishes to help educate people, and support the Alzheimer’s Association in what they do.
“It puts things into perspective,” Cortez said, “seeing your family members go through that. In a lot of ways, it makes you appreciate life more.”
Binkley’s mother and father were both diagnosed with dementia; her mother died in 2013, her father died five years later in 2018. Binkley believes that raising awareness and financial support for the Alzheimer’s Association plays a critical role in helping aid cure research, and that advocacy is just as important.
“I think the big end goal is a cure,” Binkley said, “because you can’t use something like chemo, or a medication, because there aren’t any for Alzheimer’s and dementia — there are medications to tone down the symptoms, but nothing to rid them completely. Funding for a cure is the most important thing right now.”
The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that 6.2 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s disease in 2021. Of these 6.2 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s, 72% percent are age 75 or older, and two-thirds of them are women.
In Livingston County, 17.9% of the population is aged 65 or older according to 2019 US Census Data estimates. Chances are, you’ve passed somebody on the street who has a family member with Alzheimer’s disease, or another form of dementia.
If you’d like to get involved, learn more about Alzheimer’s disease, or donate to the Alzheimer’s Association to help fund cure research and resources, you can do so on their website, https://act.alz.org/site/SPageServer/. If you’d like to register for the walk in October, or donate directly, you can do so on the 2021 Walk to End Alzheimer’s website here https://act.alz.org/site/TR/Walk2021/MI-MichiganGreatLakes?fr_id=14550&pg=entry.
