Lisa’s Story: A Trailblazer in the Fight Against Alzheimer's

For the women in Lisa’s family, Alzheimer’s disease has played a defining role in aging.

“My mother had Alzheimer’s. Her mother had Alzheimer’s. Her sister presently has Alzheimer’s and her grandmother had Alzheimer’s,” Lisa shared.

When her mother began to show signs of memory loss in 2009, Lisa knew right away that it was Alzheimer’s. Over the next 11 years, her mother’s condition would slowly deteriorate until she no longer recognized her children. She passed in 2020.

Lisa lives in New Knoxville, Ohio—a small town with fewer than 1,000 residents, where, she explains, “clinical research opportunities are non-existent.”

On a trip to a local street fair, she noticed a Care Access booth and was surprised to learn they were looking for people interested in participating in Alzheimer’s disease research. She and her husband signed up for a brain health screening to find out if a clinical trial was a good fit for them.

Her husband did not qualify, but her health screening results showed an increased risk for developing Alzheimer’s. She was invited to participate in the TRAILBLAZER clinical trial, which aims to find a new treatment for early-stage Alzheimer’s and slow the progression of the disease.

Lisa is happy to step up and be part of the future of Alzheimer’s disease treatment.

“Somebody has to be willing to try the medicine they’re working on, to see if it helps,” she explains.

Our memories are our connection to those we love. For people like Lisa, the chance to impact the future of those memories means so much.

“It may make a difference in me. Maybe I’ll have those couple more weeks or months [of memory]. But I am making a difference.”