Greenwich Avenue in Connecticut Goes Purple for Alzheimer's Awareness

Greenwich merchants dressed up the Greenwich Avenue, Connecticut with purple ribbons in an effort to promote an Alzheimer’s disease awareness campaign. Alzheimer’s Association Connecticut estimates 73,000 Connecticut residents to have Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia. There are also 177,000 caregivers who provide more than 200,000 hours of unpaid care each year throughout the state.

Three-dozen businesses participated in painting the town purple, tying ribbons to trees and adding decals to their windows. ‘Celebrating Hope, 2015’, a fundraising event was organised to support caregivers as part of the campaign.

Lynn Hagerbrant, one of the co-chairs of the Celebrating Hope event said that there has been a groundswell of support and awareness of the disease since the first fundraiser three years ago. Hagerbrant said, “More people are talking about it. In the past no one wanted to admit it was part of their family. There is a lot of passion in this group because everyone is affected by Alzheimer’s.”

Typically, symptoms of Alzheimer’s begin with mild memory loss further progressing to a loss of ability to carry on a conversation and respond to the environment. The initial symptoms begin after the age of 60 and is one of the most common diseases in the United States, affecting more than 5 million Americans.

Source-Medindia