Our program this week was given by two people that are passionate about the fight for a cure for the different forms of dementia. They both have very close experiences with the disease, having lost their mothers to the disease. Since losing her mother ten years ago to a rare form of dementia, Shanna Briggs has devoted her life to the fight for a cure for dementia and the support of those with a family member who has the disease.

Angel San Juan, a native of Houston, has been in the television news business for more than twenty-five years, twenty of those years in Southeast Texas. Angel’s mother lived to the age of ninety but suffered from Alzheimer’s for the last fourteen years of her life. He and his brother ended up being the primary care givers to his mother and father because his father didn’t understand the disease and what was going on with her. In the final time of his mother’s disease, she thought that Angel’s father was her father. She also didn’t realize that Angel and his brother were her sons, but she knew they were people who loved her and cared for her.

Both Shanna and Angel spoke about the difficulties faced by the families of people suffering from dementia. When you have been with someone who has been very capable their whole life, and they begin forgetting things, repeating themselves frequently or getting lost when they go to the grocery store, most of us do not know how to deal with these situations. Angel said if you suspect something is wrong, it is a very good idea to get them checked out as soon as possible. The earlier it is detected, the better chance you have of delaying the effects of dementia.

Shanna explained that the umbrella term for loss of memory and other thinking abilities severe enough to interfere with daily life is dementia. There are multiple types of dementia, but Alzheimer’s makes up 60-80% of all cases of dementia. Today there are 55 million people suffering from Alzheimer’s worldwide, six million in the US, and it kills more people annually than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. One in three seniors in America die with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia annually.

The Alzheimer’s Association was formed as a non-profit organization to raise funds for research to find a cure for the disease and to provide support for families that must care for Alzheimer’s patients. The association is represented in all fifty states by local chapters involved in fundraisers and providing support to families of Alzheimer’s patients. More information about the organization can be found on its website – alz.org.

Shanna’s local chapter is sponsoring the Beaumont Walk to End Alzheimer’s on Saturday, October 7th at the Event Center. Rotary International has pledged to raise $250,000 to support the association’s work and the local “Rotarians in Action” has already raised $850. In 2022 the local “Rotarians in Action” raised $3000 which was 19th in the nation out of 190 teams. They hope to exceed that number this year. If you wish to support this effort, you can download the Alzheimer’s Walk App, look for it on Facebook Fundraiser, or visit the Alzheimer’s Association website.

Photos by: Jennifer Gregory