The last few weeks have been all about the Alzheimer’s Association’s Walks. I’ve been raising funds, briefly spoke at the walk in Naperville, Illinois last weekend, and am participating in the Fox Valley Walk this coming weekend.

My fundraising efforts have been entirely online. Work and family responsibilities fill my days leaving me with no free time. I have little opportunity to solicit elsewhere.

The funds I raise will not be of any help to my husband, Marshall. He’s shown symptoms of Alzheimer’s since at least 2004. The disease has caused too much destruction for any new cure to rid him of the disease or rejuvenate dead brain cells. (You can see a recent video of Marshall and me on my Facebook author page.)

So why do I spend my limited time to promote this walk? I do it for you. More than 5.7 million Americans are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. No one knows how many have it but are yet to be diagnosed. The disease is thought to be in the brain 10-20 years before symptoms reveal the hidden destroyer. You and I may well be one of those people.

Alzheimer’s costs all of us. We pay for public care through our taxes, every person with the disease requires 3-5 caregivers, and nearly all of us know someone with Alzheimer’s or has passed because of it. It is a relentless disease demanding all available physical, emotional, and financial resources.

If able, please donate. Every dollar raised brings us one step closer to a future without Alzheimer’s.

(My book, Navigating Alzheimer’s, is available from Amazon.com, ACTA Publications, and my website.)