It’s time for the Geelong community to get active for their brain health with the return of the Memory Walk and Jog on Sunday.
Dementia Australia will host its annual event at Eastern Beach Reserve on May 4 to raise funds and awareness for people living with dementia and their families.
Geelong’s Bernie Zeven said she would be taking part in the event for the first time in honour of her brother Michael (‘Mic’), who is living with Down syndrome and younger-onset Alzheimer’s disease at age 63.
Ms Zeven said there needed to be more awareness of the increased risk people living with Down syndrome had of also being diagnosed with dementia.
“With the dementia, Mic just started to forget people’s names… He also started getting confused and not being able to follow the football on TV as he didn’t know where the ball was,” she said.
“He’s always been really smart, and he would do 1000-piece jigsaw puzzles and long-words and follow the football. He’d write down which teams were playing each other and then work out the scoring.
“To see him change his personality has been hard… For the first five years, there were changes that we could manage, but then it started to go downhill. The longer it goes on, the worse it gets.”
People living with Down syndrome have a higher chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease due to being born with a third chromosome 21, which can cause developmental and health problems, according to Dementia Australia.
Visit dementia.org.au for more information. Help is also available by calling the National Dementia Helpline on 1800 100 500.
Jena Carr
