Lewes-Rehoboth Rotary supports Alzheimer's clinical trials
Dr. James Ellison spoke to the Lewes-Rehoboth Rotary Club March 20 about Alzheimer’s disease and other memory disorders. Ellison is the Swank Foundation Endowed Chair in Memory Care and Geriatrics at Christiana Care Health System. He is a renowned clinical practitioner, researcher and educator in geriatric and adult psychiatry with special expertise in geriatric mood and anxiety disorders, cognitive impairment and dementia. Ellison is head of clinical trials to raise awareness and try to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease.
The Swank Center is Delaware's only outpatient center for Alzheimer's care, seeing 1,000 patients annually. Currently, 26,000 Delawareans have the disease. Alzheimer's disease is no longer considered an older person's disease, as the protein gene of Alzheimer's may lie dormant for 20 to 30 years or longer before activating its death march. Rotary Club Director Dave Keller says because of the long dormancy of Alzheimer’s, people must act now to save their children and grandchildren and their families from the ravages of this disease.
Nationally, 5.4 million have the disease, and that number is expected to triple by 2050. At age 60, only 1 percent of the population has Alzheimer’s, but at 85, 40 percent have it. It is the sixth leading cause of death, but the only major disease that has no known cure, prevention or even showing signs of slowing down. One in three seniors dies from Alzheimer's or some other form of dementia, while the effect on family life can be devastating. The average patient requires the attention of three caregivers, and the average family spends $80,000 or more on full-time caregivers.
The Lewes-Rehoboth Club, well known for its work helping to eradicate polio worldwide, came up with a grassroots idea, Coins for a Cure, and a slogan, "Remembering for those who can’t," based upon collecting loose change much the same way the March of Dimes campaign did in the 1950s to help support finding a cure for polio. Through collection boxes at Rotary Club meetings and local retailers, the power of donations of loose change allowed the Lewes-Rehoboth Rotary Club to present a check for $7,000 to Ellison for his clinical trial work.
Going forward, the Lewes-Rehoboth Rotary Club is encouraging all Rotary Clubs in Delaware to make an annual contribution of loose change with expectations to raise $100,000 annually for clinical trial research. There will be an all-you-can-eat crabs and wings fundraiser Sunday, June 4, at the Surfing Crab on Route 1 north of Lewes.
The event is open to the public. Anyone wishing to attend may contact Dave Keller at davidretired1@gmail.com or 301-404-8327.
