This is Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast more what You Hear
Weekday Afternoon's on the Drive. The annual Walk to End Alzheimer's is coming up
Saturday, the twenty eighth, starts at eight thirty at Scissor Tail Park and
we are going to be there. Joining me now from Alzheimer's Association is Herb
Magley, one of the volunteers. Great to have you along, Herb,
Hey, thanks for having us. We really appreciate this. This is a
big time for us with this walk. Well, it is, and it's
a very personal connection with you, is it not? Very much? So?
My wife developed symptoms at age fifty two and we went on a thirteen
year voyage with this terrible disease. So I got very much involved with the
walk, and to be honest, the Alzheimer's Association saved my life. We
lose one out of every three Alzheimer's family caregivers die before the person they're taken
care of. But if we can get them involved with our walk, with
support groups and education programs. I have in the ten years i've been volunteering,
I've never seen this lose a caregiver. The Walk to end Alzheimer's.
The Oklahoma Chapter is also a great resource for all kinds of things when it
comes to this debilitating disease. Yes, it does. It's you know,
we get about seven thousand people. Actually one time we had an estimated ten
thousand people show up, and you know, it's so difficult to get out
to get these people, to reach them because there's such a stigma attached with
this disease. That it is incredible that we have grown this into one of
the biggest walks in the country. So that's that's fantastic and the new Scissor
Tail Park is a perfect place to have it. It'll be Saturday, October
twenty eighth. You can get together a team, you can work walk by
yourself. Most participants honor someone that they know who is afflicted by Alzheimer's,
like Herb MAGLEI and Herb Magley's wife, and it all raises money for the
Alzheimer's Association. If you want to get involved, I'll get give you some
information. A little bit later. On eight thirty is when the party all
starts at Scissortail Park ten am. The ceremony and walk then begin and herv
there's no cure. But we're making strides for treatment, aren't we. Absolutely,
you know, we have finally come up you know, we've had drugs
that basically treat the symptoms, but we have recently, over the last couple
of years, come up with drugs that will actually slow down the cognitive decline.
And that's the first time that we've seen that. But you know,
when we first started this walk with my wife, it was like, I
don't know, ten twelve years ago and we would only get my cimeter million
a year for research. And now we're up to almost four billion, and
that makes a huge difference. They are finding out a lot more about this
disease and treatments as well as ways to avoid getting it. So it's fantastic.
And leave One other thing I wanted to say was the money that people
raise for this walk, sixty percent of it stays here so that we can
help those caregivers and those who have the disease as they're going through this disease.
It's such a long and expensive disease that this really helps to have.
All of our programs that we offer are free, Our education programs are free,
our support groups and we have thirty of those around the state are free,
and those are really the lifesavers. I mean, to get people into
those groups with people who are going through the same thing they are is fantastic
because most people don't understand what the caregivers are going through or what the people
who have the disease are going through. So it's great that the Alzheimer's Association
offers all those things and offers them for free. And it's all because of
all because of the people that walk, and we have I think there's seven
walks around the state. Tulson and Oklahoma City are the two biggest ones,
but we have others as well, Pauca City, Stillwater, Guthrie, many
more. The Walk to End Alzheimer's participants will honor Alzheimer those who have suffered
Alzheimer's as well, and also there's solidarity and colors. The colors of promised
garden flowers represent people's connection to Alzheimer's and up to seven thousand people are expected.
If you want to be one of them, it's Saturday, October twenty
eighth. You can go to Okcwalk dot com okcwalk dot com to get your
team together and learn more about the walk coming up at Scissortail Park, Herb.
It's when you start seeing the development of the disease. It's more than
just forgetting where you put your your car keys. Oh yes, And as
you go through the disease, it just you run into so many other things
that that disrupt your life as well as the person with the disease. You
know, they get paranoid when they forget where they put something. They think
that you hid it from them. You know, there's I said, there's
about five or six different things. I lead about five support groups here in
town, and I constantly hear the same things. You know. It's when
you have to tell them that they can't drive anymore that's traumatic. You know,
when you're trying to decide am I going to put them into a community
or keep them at home? When you see what the cost of this is
going to be. You know, I found that only about ten persons of
the people can really afford this. Yeah, and those are the lucky ones
that got long term care insurance or wealthy enough to handle it. It's just
terrible. I mean there are times Lee when I'm done with my support group,
I'll go sit my corn cry and there's nothing to do with what I
went through. It's what I know they're going through, and it's tough.
But we do as much as we can to help them in those support groups
and in the educational programs to teach them how to be a caregiver because it's
so different. But you know, the party is the fun part where we
get to come out and this walk is all about them. It's all about
the one who has the disease. It's all about the caregiver. And you
know, like you said, we have the promised garden flowers that they hold
up and I'll tell you, when you have seven thousand people holding up those
pinwheel flowers, it is it brings a tear to you. Hi, Yeah,
it does. Herd Magley is with us. It's the disease that is
harder on the caregivers than it is actually the person who's afflicted with it.
Alzheimer's and the Alzheimer's Association Walk to End Alzheimer's Saturday, the twenty eighth Scissor
Tail Park. Herb, we will see you there dressed up in all your
regalia and thanks for joining us. Absolutely. Hey, thanks a lot for
having me. I appreciate it. Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews,
the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday
afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation