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Belleville Walk for Alzheimers provides local support

By Sarah Law [1]

BELLEVILLE – The annual Walk for Alzheimers [2] was held on Sunday morning at West Zwick’s Island Park [3] in Belleville, and QNet News spoke to participants to ask about their connection to the disease and how support from the Alzheimers Society of Canada [4] has helped them.

The walk raised $23,000 for community support programs, according to the fund development co-ordinator of the local Alzheimers branch, [5] Amelia Huffman. There have already been walks this year in Bancroft, Quinte West/Brighton and Prince Edward County, which collectively raised $48,000, said Huffman.

Alzheimer’s disease [6] is a debilitating condition that causes problems such as memory loss, apathy, abnormal behaviour and weak motor skills. There is currently no cure. Dementia is an umbrella term that refers to a number of cognitive diseases including Alzheimer’s, according to the organization.

The Alzheimer’s Association [7] reports that more than 747,000 Canadians have Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia, and at least 44 million suffer from it across the world.