Personal Perspective: I believe that innocent lives will be lost as a result of drastic cuts to critical medical research for Alzheimer’s, cancer, and other horrific diseases.
My focus is building a strong constituency for bipartisan support for medical research.Source: Photo courtesy of Susan Quirk. As someone living with Alzheimer’s and with cancer, I was honored to be asked to speak recently at therally before thousands of people at the Lincoln Memorial.
My focus was the need for more medical research for these demons of disease. It was literally a godsend to be introduced by Dr. Francis Collins, who served as director of the National Institutes of Health under three presidents. Dr. Collins, a biomedical researcher renowned for leading the Human Genome Project in the 1990s, was also a keynote speaker at this rally to protest the Trump administration’s drastic cuts to the federal work force and to federally funded science. In his speech about taxpayer-funded medical research and science, Dr. Collins quoted from Lincoln’s Gettysburg address: “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Dr. Collins is a blessing. He knew I was nervous about speaking—out of sorts in my disease—and he instinctively calmed me, as did Susan Quirk, who works at Washington-based UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, where I serve on the board.where he wrote: “The world breaks everyone, and afterwards some are strong at the broken places.”I believe that innocent lives will be lost as a result of drastic cuts on the table for critical medical research for Alzheimer’s, cancer, and other horrific diseases. Few would argue against the need to cut government waste. I certainly don’t. But the need to cut waste must be thoughtful — not a meat cleaver approach that is in process now.journalist, and politically in the middle. I have no party affiliation. I am advocating for what I believe are the right things. My comments were not about shoveling ashes on the White House. My focus is building a strong constituency for bipartisan support for medical research and care for the millions upon millions of those suffering today.It’s simple math. I learned at a young age from the Sisters of Charity in an Irish Catholic school outside Manhattan that one plus one is two.Good research and science are not dirty words! I lost my maternal grandfather, my mother, and my paternal uncle to Alzheimer’s, and before my father’s death, he too died ofToday, like others on the Alzheimer’s journey, I am dealing with an ongoing breakdown of my mind/body, given that brain signals are not connecting properly. I also deal with serious internal hemorrhaging at times, incontinence, and a degree of numbness from my neck to my feet, following spine reconstruction years ago at New England Baptist Hospital in Boston—a ten-hour operation.I told the rally crowd that I didn’t want their pity. I‘m far more focused on research for Alzheimer’s, which can be a 20-year journey, the experts say. It’s like having a sliver of your brain shaved every day.and often a series of blanks. Thus, my MacBook Pro laptop is my best friend. I write everything down before it vanishes.Again, that’s s why we need more research into ways to detect, treat, and even prevent these diseases, not less.—not retreating. I write and speak at rallies like this one on behalf of UsAgainstAlzheimer’s and also the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund of Boston with world Alzheimer’s experts and researchers like Rudy Tanzi of Harvard and Mass General Brigham to encourage others. Years ago I served on the Chicago national Alzheimer’s Association Younger/Early Onset Alzheimer’s board with Paul Hornback, a former US Marine pilot, government engineer and a man of great faith. Suffering from Alzheimer’s, Paul wrote a book titled: “” Hornback’s book inspired me. The Lord indeed does remember! As a wholly imperfect person, I see my relationship with God as a combination of the agonizing Lurch in the Adams Family, and Telly Savalas, the lollypop Kokack: “Who loves ya, Baby.” So I press on. The point to all this is that without a strong commitment to adequate funding for medical research, we lose our soul as a nation.And so it’s not over, folks!…. Keep rallying. Keep the faith. Be strong at the broken places!Being overly polite might seem kind, but it often leads to problems anyway, in relationships, with friends, and at work.
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