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2 Atlantans appointed to Alzheimer's disease advisory board to share their stories
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LISTEN: Two Georgia residents will serve two-year terms on the Alzheimer’s Association’s National Early-Stage Advisory Group (ESAG). They hope sharing their personal experiences will raise awareness about living with dementia. GPB’s Ellen Eldridge has more.
Andrea Lucas wasn't yet 60 years of age when she began noticing symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.
"All of a sudden I started feeling myself slip," the former global marketing manager said. "I was at board meeting, I wasn't answering questions as easy."
She is one of two Georgia residents who will serve two-year terms on the Alzheimer’s Association’s National Early-Stage Advisory Group (ESAG). They hope sharing their personal experiences will raise awareness about living with dementia.
Lucas and another Atlantan, George King, want others to know that quality of life is possible while living with cognitive decline.
Lucas said she was diagnosed last year with mild cognitive impairment, and, after reaching out to the Alzheimer's help hotline, decided that she wanted to help others.
"At first I was just devastated and my first instinct was to hide it, and I didn't want anyone to know," she said. "Being an African American woman who had early onset Alzheimer's, I just felt like I needed to come out of the shadows because, again, my first instinct was to hide."
King was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, a degenerative disease of dementia, but the 78-year-old said his symptoms have since improved in some ways.
"I barely have a short-term memory," King said, describing how he can veer off topic when something triggers a memory, and then wonder where he was. "Otherwise, I feel pretty sharp."
More than 7.2 million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer’s disease, including more than 188,000 in Georgia.
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