The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Nurse organizes team for Alzheimer’s walk
EAST NORRITON >> Of the top 10 leading causes of death in the U.S. Alzheimer’s is the only disease that can’t be prevented, cured or slowed.
But that alarming fact, according to act.alz.org, will not begin to deter Nick Russo and hundreds more from participating in the Alzheimer’s Association’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Nov. 10.
For the past three years the Philadelphia Walk to End Alzheimer’s has been the nation’s top fundraising walk, and Russo is excited to be organizing his team, the Ragin’ Russo’s, for its first venture around Citizens Bank Park.
As Russo, an East Norriton resident and a nurse at Einstein Medical Center Montgomery, explains on his team website www.act.alz.org/goto/TheRaginRussos: “Alzheimer’s disease is relentless. So are we. Join our team for the Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s, the world’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s care, support and research. My father, Mark Russo Sr., has been battling Alzheimer’s for the past few years. As a fun loving and endlessly joking man, it has been difficult to watch as he has progressively had a harder time completing simple tasks without assistance. With the support of our amazing family, we have been able to stick together and push through the everyday struggles accompanied by this disease. We are participating in this walk in hopes that one day soon, no one will have to battle such a debilitating disease.”
With a goal of raising $20,000, the Ragin’ Russo’s are a little more than halfway there.
“If people want to go to the site and sign up to do the walk with us, they’re more than welcome to, or if they just want to donate, that would be wonderful too,” Russo said. “If they sign up as a team member they can also fundraise.”
Russo, who grew up in Perkiomenville, moved to East Norriton from San Diego about a year ago to be closer to his dad, Mark Russo, Sr., a Norristown native, when it became clear that Alzheimer’s was taking more of a toll on his health.
“I always knew in my mind that I would know when it was time to come home and be with my family,” said Russo. “My dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s about five years ago when he was 58 years old. He worked as a engineer for a company called Leica Camera.It got to be point where he wasn’t able to do his job anymore.
Russo’s maternal 97-year-old grandmother, Julie Peters, has been fighting Alzheimer’s for years, he said.
“When my dad was finally diagnosed things progressed pretty rapidly for him. It got really bad about six years ago,” he added. “My parents were on vacation with my dad’s brother Joe in Sicily, in the town where my great grandparents migrated from, Sciacca. My uncle got sick while they were there and ended up passing away. And a lot of times a traumatic event like that will have a negative impact on a disease like Alzheimer’s.”
When the situation worsened not long ago Mark Russo, Sr. was moved to Arden Courts of King of Prussia, his son said.
“It got to the point where my family couldn’t really take care of him so we made the decision to move him to this facility where people who are trained to care for those with Alzheimer’s could keep an eye on him. Now he’s not surrounded by all the stimulus from the outside world. He’s at the point where he’s still cognitive enough to recognize us but it’s hard to know how much he actually remembers because he lost his ability to communicate.”
Since his family had participated in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s in the past, Russo dove into his research about the disease with a passion.
“I saw how much money they had raised and they’re really working hard to find a cure for Alzheimer’s. All the money goes directly to research to help find a cure so that people and families don’t have to suffer with this disease anymore. It isn’t common for someone to be diagnosed at 58, but people are getting diagnosed younger and younger because they’re recognizing the symptoms. It’s different for everybody and it’s very unpredictable. You don’t know how it will progress,” Russo said. “There’s only so much we can do for my dad at this point — he had a wonderful neurologist at Jefferson Hospital — but we want to be able to help with funding in the hope that they do find a cure for this disease so that people who are diagnosed, and their families, don’t have to worry about what the situation holds in the future. Anything we can do to prevent that by fundraising and raising awareness is a good thing.”