Letter to the editor: Fight to end Alzheimer's

During June, Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month, the Alzheimer’s Association needs you to get involved to help raise awareness about Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Everyone is at risk to develop Alzheimer’s, a disease that is often misunderstood. Alzheimer’s is not normal aging; it’s a progressive brain disease without any cure. Alzheimer’s is fatal. It kills more people than breast and prostate cancer combined.

As an Alzheimer’s Association advocate, I have been fortunate to join with other advocates and meet with U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb and his staff to share our personal experiences and discuss the staggering impact of Alzheimer’s on Pennsylvania, where nearly 400,000 residents are living with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders.

We are urging Lamb to co-sponsor the Younger-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease Act and the HOPE for Alzheimer’s Act, as well as support research funding for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias at the National Institutes of Health and funding for the recently passed BOLD Act.

Please join us in asking Lamb and all members of Congress for their support in the fight to end Alzheimer’s.

Carrie Stott

Mt. Lebanon

The writer is a volunteer advocacy ambassador for the Greater Pennsylvania Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association (www.alz.org/pa).