photo by: Gage Vota

Tate Blanchard, vice chair of the Upper Ohio Valley Alzheimer’s Association Board of Directors, leads the crowd at the annual Upper Ohio Valley Walk to End Alzheimer’s on Sunday at Wheeling Park.

WHEELING — The hot weather was no match for the participants in the annual Upper Ohio Valley Walk to End Alzheimer’s at Wheeling Park on Sunday afternoon.

Tate Blanchard, vice chair of the Upper Ohio Alzheimer’s Association Board of Directors, said the 0.6-mile walk is the largest fund and awareness raiser in the country and keeps growing every year.

He said that this year’s goal was $100,000. He thought that may have been a little bit overzealous, but before the walk even began, $120,000 already was raised.

“A large portion of that money helps all of our local Alzheimer’s and dementia patients,” Blanchard said. “It’s not like it’s going to a national chapter where the money will never be seen in our area. It actually helps people here in our community.”

He added that the prevalence of Alzheimer’s and dementia is what personally keeps him organizing the event every year.

“The number of diagnoses continues to grow. And unfortunately, here in the Upper Ohio Valley, nearly 11% of all people age 65 and over are battling a dementia diagnosis,” Blanchard said. “That number is only going to continue to grow. So it’s important that we continue to do these events to raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Association.”

He added that the end goal is obviously a world without Alzheimer’s and dementia, which fundraising events such as the walk are fighting toward making a reality.

Blanchard said that what makes him so passionate about fighting this disease is he’s seen it affect people both in his personal and professional life.

Blanchard works for IC Care as director of marketing.

His grandmother died after battling dementia while Blanchard was in high school.

He believes the walk is the largest support group of the year.

“You’re able to connect with other individuals that are here today because they have experienced similar things in their life,” Blanchard said. “Alzheimer’s and dementia are unique to every person, no two people’s diagnosis are the same.

He said that, although every diagnosis is different, the situations that patients and their families face are very similar.

Blanchard was incredibly happy to see the massive crowd of Ohio Valley residents who attended Sunday’s walk.

“For so many of us here in the Upper Ohio Valley, this crisis really does hit home, and I think that’s the reason why most of us are here,” Blanchard said.

The success of the fundraising event proves that there is strength and determination within the Ohio Valley community, he continued.

“I think the Ohio Valley is very unique in the way in which we rally around each other in times of crisis,” Blanchard said.

Ohio Valley resident and Alzheimer’s patient Jamie Roberts spoke to the large crowd before the walk got underway.

She said that she was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s after going to the doctor because she was having brain fog.

“The brain fog and the fatigue was just off the charts, and it got so bad that I would take naps during lunch. Thank God, I was working from home, but I just laid my head down at my desk and took naps,” Roberts said. “It was just terrible. And I had to do home visits at the time, and when I did that, I couldn’t make it to the home visits in a timely manner because I was always taking a nap on the side of the road. It was bad.”

She added that the thing that pushed her over the edge was when the home care agency she was working for installed a new documentation system, and she wasn’t able to figure out how to use it.

Roberts said she originally thought she had a brain clot but was surprised when the doctors discovered that she had Alzheimer’s.

She said that due to the doctors discovering her Alzheimer’s early she was able to be prescribed Leqembi and Donanemab. Both Leqembi and Donanemab and newly FDA-approved medicine that help slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Walk attendee Mary Anne Woofter was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s this past February.

Woofter’s husband Jeff Woofter was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease a few years ago.

In an effort to spread awareness of both diagnoses, the couple decided to start a podcast called “Life with the Parkinheimers” which is available on Facebook and YouTube.

Mary Anne said that she went to the doctor without showing any symptoms but her mother, grandmother, and great grandmother all had Alzheimer’s.

“I went to get checked out to get a baseline so that I would know from this point on. And as it turned out, I also have Alzheimer’s,” she said.