Page 61 - Toast to Your Health Wine Auction | University of Rochester Medical Center

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became withdrawn, inattentive, and spoke repetitively.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