Chances are, you’ve been impacted by Alzheimer’s disease. The most commonly diagnosed form of dementia, it affects 170,000 people in North Carolina, two-thirds of them women.

“Mama was 66 when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. For the last four years, she did not acknowledge us at all,” said Laura Gaddis of Guardian Angel Thrift in Apex and Fuquay-Varina, which raises money for Alzheimer’s research. 

While there’s no known cure for the disease today, research is the key to finding it.

Here’s where you can help: Throw on your running — or walking — shoes, and head to WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary this Sunday for the fourth annual Triangle Run to Remember.

Benefitting Alzheimer’s North Carolina, the event offers the traditional WakeMed cross-country 5K course, plus a 100-yard dash for kids.  

Registration for the 5K is $30 until April 23, and $35 on race day. Kids’ dash is $5.  

All monies raised remain in North Carolina, for research toward prevention, cure and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

Get more event info at alznc.org or fitandable.net.

Triangle Run to Remember

Sunday, April 24 at 3 p.m.

WakeMed Soccer Park, Cary

And look for more stories on people who are taking on Alzheimer’s, in the upcoming May issue of Cary Magazine.