IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) — Hundreds of people met at Snake River Landing Saturday, September 20, for Walk to End Alzheimer’s. The annual fundraiser raises awareness for the brain disease and helps create a world where Alzheimer’s is no longer a problem.
“Our goal here is to find a cure someday. And we are getting closer every day,” said the Walk’s Southeast Idaho Manager, Shelly Jones. “We’re in the era of a treatment, which our motto this year is our time is now, which is now that we need to go fight for this disease and remove that stigma that’s associated with it and let people know they’re not alone.”
The Alzheimer’s Association says the brain disease causes problems with memory, thinking, and behavior.
“They’re not having behaviors or forgetting because they want to. There’s really a physical change happening in the brain,” said the Alzheimer’s Associations’s Regional Outreach Manager, Jody Cornilsen.
The disease gets worse over time, but it is not a normal part of aging.
Everyone who came to the walk got to hold up a pinwheel flower. Each of the four different colors represents the person’s connection to Alzheimer’s.
“The purple flower, if you have that, you’ve lost someone to Alzheimer’s or another dementia,” Cornilsen said. “The yellow flower is for caregivers.”
“Blue means they have the disease, and orange means they support our cause,” Jones said.
The Alzheimer’s Association says if someone thinks they might be developing the brain disease, they should talk about it with someone they trust, then try to see a doctor. That way, they can find out if it really is Alzheimer’s.
“It’s an easy test that you can ask your doctor to do,” said Jones. “And then, if they see something from that early diagnosis, they can prescribe a different test that might look into the brain more.”
Getting an early diagnosis can give you chance to plan for the future, find support services, and look into possible treatment.
