Page 60 - Toast to Your Health Wine Auction | University of Rochester Medical Center
P. 60

FUND-A-NEED

                                                                     Everyone Participates!

                                                                     When Brian and Amy Norton married in 1995, they never
                                                                     dreamed they would have an incredibly difficult journey
                                                                     ahead of them. After Amy’s mother died in 2010, Brian
                                                                     began to notice small changes in Amy’s behavior. She
                                                                     became withdrawn, inattentive, and spoke repetitively.
                                                                     Even the neighbors noticed a difference in her, but
                                                                     everyone chalked it up to grief.
                                                                     In March of 2013, Amy was taken to a neurologist and
                                                                     diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. She
                                                                     was 43. By 2015, she was no longer able to speak
                                                                     coherently and needed in-home caregivers to help her
                                                                     manage many activities of daily living. While Brian and
                                                                     their two children, Megan and Justin, were very grateful
                                                                     for the help, Alzheimer’s placed a tremendous toll on
                                                                     the family and their finances.

                                                                     An early-onset diagnosis, like Amy’s, is uncommon—
                                                                     only 200,000 of the 5.5 million Americans who live with
                                                                     Alzheimer’s are under the age of 65—but the impact
                                                                     of an Alzheimer’s diagnosis is devastating at any age.
                                                                     By 2050, Alzheimer’s will affect 13.8 million Americans.
                                                                     While it is a leading cause of death, it is the only major
                                                                     disease for which there is no prevention or treatment to
                                                                     effectively stop or slow its progression.
                                                                     But there is hope. At the University of Rochester, we
                                                                     possess a breadth and depth of multi-disciplinary
                                                                     expertise that very few universities can claim, making
                                                                     us uniquely poised to help unravel this complex disease
                                                                     and improve people’s futures.











                                                                     FINE WINE AUCTION                         61
   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65