More New Friends

I wrote several weeks ago about my acceptance into an Early Stage Advocacy Group out of the national office of the Alzheimer's Association. Well, last week, we had our first conference call that consisted of Alzheimer's staff as well as the fourteen people that comprise the group. All of us have Early Stage Alzheimer's and the majority are Early on-set (under the age of 65). It was interesting to hear their stories and to share our thoughts. We will be meeting face to face at the end of August at a meeting in Chicago. I'm anxious to meet all of them as we all share the passion to do what we can to help fight this dreaded disease.

Our role will be to act as advisors to the Association as well as to be national spokespeople for the cause. It seems we are all rather out spoken and we each have our own little niches that we interested in. Many are interested in helping to educate the medical field more about what we go through, some are intersted in lobbying congress for more money, everyone wants to help educate the public and raise awareness to help get funds for research.

It's a very diverse group and I am honored to be one of the fourteen.

One major initiative this year for the Association is to have regional town meetings to discuss Alzheimer's. There will be one in Chicago while we are there, state chapters will have them and there will also be virtual town meetings. If you are interested in any of these, you can check out more information on the National Alzheimer's website at www.alz.org.