'We are here to fight'

MOSES LAKE — Alzheimer’s disease is a terrifying thing for many people: the fear that one day they will watch helplessly as they cease to remember their families and even who they are. The 150-200 people who came to the Purple Party at the Porterhouse Steakhouse in Moses Lake Thursday want to make that fear a thing of the past.

“Right now, Alzheimer’s disease kills more people than prostate cancer and (breast cancer) combined,” said Karisti Cox, the marketing director for Summer Wood Alzheimer’s Special Care in Moses Lake, who calls herself the Alzheimer’s Nerd. “It is practically an epidemic.”

The party was a team-building event for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s, an annual fund- and awareness-raising event that benefits research into Alzheimer’s. This year is the 10th anniversary of both the walk and the Purple Party in Moses Lake, Cox said.

The 2024 Walk to End Alzheimer’s will take place in Moses Lake on Sept. 14 at McCosh Park.

During the party, Cox took the microphone to distribute flowers to the crowd: purple for people who had lost someone to dementia or Alzheimer’s, blue for people who know someone currently with the disease, yellow for those who had been caregivers to an Alzheimer’s sufferer and orange for those who didn’t have a personal experience with the disease but did have a passion for finding a cure.

“It was really quite emotional,” Cox said.

The amount of money raised wasn’t available before press time, but Cox said that the silent auction alone raised $3,000. The money will go to the Alzheimer’s Association, where the lion’s share will go to scientific research into the disease, according to Julie Reathaford, the Walk to End Alzheimer's manager in the Tri-Cities area, which includes Moses Lake.

The Porterhouse catered the event and supplied the venue, the Grant County Fairgrounds loaned the party enormous fans to fight back the three-digit heat and Dale Roth Productions spun the music and made the announcements. The Moses Lake Roundup Rodeo supplied tables, chairs and a canopy for shade.

According to the National Institutes of Health, one in 13 people between the ages of 65 and 84 develop Alzheimer’s. After 85, the chances are one in three. For a disease that prevalent, we really don’t know very much about it, according to the Centers for Disease Control. We know that age appears to be the biggest risk factor and that it appears to run in families. What we don’t know is what actually causes it, how to prevent it or how to cure it.

But we may be starting to have ways to fight back, Cox said.

“We are in what they call the era of treatment, because for early diagnosed early onset stages, there are some treatments available that are actually addressing the root problem,” she said. “It's not the old-fashioned cold medicine remedy (where) we're going to take care of your sniffling nose and your symptoms. This is actually addressing the root problem, which is really exciting for us.”

“Ten years ago, if you were given a diagnosis, there was no hope,” said Jordan Hunter, who formerly managed the Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Moses Lake and now does the same in Spokane. “There was nothing; it was trying to manage the symptoms. But now there’s two FDA-approved drugs to help slow the progression. So that gives you more time with your family, more time to get your finances together. It’s very much the tip of the iceberg, but … we have tools now that we’ve never had.”

The next tool needed is to catch the disease early, Cox said. That’s difficult, because the existing scans are very expensive and insurers and Medicare are reluctant to pay for testing for people who aren’t showing any signs of a condition.

“I want to know ahead of time if I should be concerned and what I should do,” Cox said. “I’m in my 40s. Now is the time I should be going in and doing those scans, just like somebody with cancer in their family … if you think that there's a possibility that you could have (dementia), you should have the right to be able to go in and have those tests done.

“There are over 600 (Walks to End Alzheimer’s) in our nation,” Cox said. “Those people that participate, we are a counted number of supporters in this cause who say, ‘We will not stand by idly and watch this take our elderly. We are here to fight.’”

Joel Martin may be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com .