A Memory Marathon for Alzheimers NZ

About a month ago my Great Nana Mae passed away peacefully at the age of 92. She always loved seeing her family and never got tired of listening to our stories.

But sadly the past few years had been quite hard for us all. My Nana had alzheimers.

This slowly worked away at her memory over the years and initially was just put aside as getting a bit older and forgetting the odd thing. Although this was initially fine, it became a safety issue for herself that she eventually moved into a home. We would visit her often, stopping by to say hi and have a chat. Which was hard initially as she didn't understand why she was in her new room or when she was going home, but that passed soon enough.

As time passed conversations started to be repeated, not only visit to visit, but every few minutes. Never the less she had a smile on her face when we came in and was happy to see us most of the time. As her alzheimers got worse, she forgot more and more, becoming quite a different person than we were used to, saying things to people she would never think of saying to them a few years back. Which is about when she was moved into a specialist ward.

From here things slowly got worse. When going to visit, you would be prepared for if she didn't recognise you or know who you were, but going was still important and you always had the hope it would brighten her day.

Something I often talked about with my Nana Mae was my running, something I've only been doing for a few years. She loved my bright clothing I wore whenever I visited and loved to hear about how far I ran (even though she had no clue as to how far it actually was) and so I wanted to try make a difference. I am running the Queenstown Marathon and raising money for Alzheimers NZ. They can do research on the condition and help with those who are in need today. With the hope they can brighten the day of many more people like my Nana Mae, or perhaps one day prevent it all from happening.