For years, Los Altos resident Kim Wilford watched Alzheimer’s Illness rob her beloved mother-in-law of her reminiscences, spirit and eventually, her life.
Wilford, a longtime distance runner, laced up her trainers this vacation season to honor her late mother-in-law, Ruth Wilford, and convey consideration to the thousands and thousands of individuals residing with this illness.
Practically 25 Los Altos Operating group members rapidly signed up for the problem. Wilford arrange a GoFundMe web page related to the Strava fitness-tracking app, enabling her teammates to log their miles every day. As of Saturday, Nov. 29, the group was properly on its strategy to assembly—and surpassing—its objective.
“There are so many of us with family members and friends who have been impacted by Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia,” mentioned Wilford, 57, who works because the chief authorized officer at GoFundMe. “I thought this challenge would be a great way to rally everybody together during the holidays.”
Alzheimer’s is a degenerative mind illness and the commonest explanation for dementia. Based on the Alzheimer’s Affiliation, greater than 7 million People live with the illness, together with 720,000 individuals in California.
Wilford noticed up shut the results of Alzheimer’s and the toll it took on her husband and sister as they tried to take care of Ruth, who died this previous summer time at age 93.
“I watched it take the life from my mother-in-law,” she mentioned. “Over the years, her body stayed strong, but all the memories and warmth that had defined her throughout her life, that was just gone. That’s the cruelty of Alzheimer’s; it takes people piece by piece. Memory is so key to our identity. It gives your soul life and allows you to emotionally connect with people around you. When that’s gone, you become a shell of who you once were.”
Peggy McGrath, a longtime member of the Los Altos Operating group, additionally is aware of how devastating this illness will be. Her grandmother battled Alzheimer’s and her mom, 96, suffers from dementia with some Alzheimer’s-like signs.
“It’s not like a lot of other things that people die from, where you get sick and you fight it and maybe it goes into remission,” mentioned McGrath, 62, who ran 5 miles each day as a part of the fundraising problem. “There’s no remission with this disease. It’s a slow road and a sad road for most people.”
Megan Mozart, one other veteran working group member, misplaced her mom to Alzheimer’s in 2020. Mozart mentioned taking part within the fundraising problem means lots to her.
“I fear that I could possibly inherit this disease myself one day,” she mentioned. “I hope that there could possibly be a cure someday. When my mother was diagnosed, there were a few medicines out but none of them worked. But maybe in years to come, and with more money to fund the research, there could be some medications that can help.”
The Los Altos Operating group, with its camaraderie and supportive surroundings, was a pure for taking over the Miles That Matter problem, Wilford mentioned. The group repeatedly meets in downtown Los Altos on Mondays and Wednesdays at 6 a.m. for brief runs, at Foothill Group Faculty on Thursdays for monitor runs, and on Saturday mornings behind Peet’s on State Avenue for longer runs.
“We’re as much of a social group as we are a running group,” mentioned McGrath. “And in many ways, we’re a support group for each other. We’ve watched our members go through injuries, surgeries, family members passing away, and so many other things. We’ve always been there for each other. It’s just a really special group of people.”
