CHARLOTTE, NC Local Charlotte News – For Peggy Johnson the Walk to End Alzheimer’s is personal. Her husband Dave was diagnosed nearly 9 years ago and he’s the reason the Johnson family was there in full force Saturday for the event at Truist Field.
“He’s not the dad that they grew up with…that has been a real impact on them. He still remembers them , but he’s just not the same person,” Johnson said.
Peggy serves as Dave’s primary care giver and remembers well the feelings she had when he was first diagnosed.
“It’s difficult, it’s scary because I was always a project manager and I always knew here is where we are, here is where we’re going,” Johnson said. “The scary part about this I don’t know what’s coming I don’t know what the end is.”
Those scary moments, aren’t unfamiliar to one of our own here at News 46. For Chief Meteorologist Tara Lane, who emceed the event, those moments became her families reality a year ago, when her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
“You know it’s just been obviously devastating to all of our family , but I’ve just seen the huge toll it’s taken on my mom who is his primary care giver living at home,” Lane said.
It’s the hope of the Alzheimer’s association though, that no more families will have to go through what Tara’s or Peggy’s or any other of these families experience. That’s why the Walk to End Alzheimer’s is so important, so they can raise money to fund research to find a cure and until then provide care and support for those living with it.
“Here in North Carolina we have 180,000 individuals living with the disease. I hear so often it was isolating, I was alone. We don’t want it to be that way,” said Katherine Lambert, CEO Western Carolina Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.
Those who want to get involved can walk again on 10/30 in Kannapolis, NC. The link to do that is here.
Donations, which are accepted throughout the year, can be made here.
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