Fundraiser targets millennials
Young millennials may be more concerned with the popularity of their Instagram accounts than with the agony of an old-age illness like Alzheimer’s disease, but a new Montreal fundraising campaign is aiming to change that.
Montreal Alzheimer Research for a Cure (MARC) is specifically targeting younger donors by reminding them they will have a one in five chance of developing Alzheimer’s or related disorders in their senior years if something isn’t done now to combat the illness.
It was launched just in time for World Alzheimer’s Day on Sept. 21.
A joint project of the Jewish General Hospital and the Montreal Neurological Institute, MARC is the first online fundraising program dedicated to exclusively supporting Montreal-based research targeting the early detection and treatment of Alzheimer’s and related dementia. It has recruited two internationally-recognized local researchers who are considered trailblazers on the road to a new treatment.
And it is being spearheaded by local philanthropist Dorothy Reitman, who wants to wake up and shake up the younger generation by inspiring them to make an investment in their own future — because she knows what lies ahead if they don’t.
For 12 years, Reitman watched as her husband, Cyril, a former vice-president of Reitman’s Canada Ltd., withered away from Alzheimer’s disease — a situation she described as completely hopeless.
It starts so gently, she said, that you think you’re beating it. But you’re not. “You think you’re getting away with it,” she said in an interview. “But it gets worse. All we could do was keep him comfortable and watch the disease progress.”
She felt so strongly that more needs to be done to find a cure that, after her husband’s death at age 84 in 2014, she swung into action.
“I just felt this shouldn’t be happening,” Reitman said. “We have the resources. We have leading researchers in Montreal. There is hope that this can change, we just have to empower people so they don’t feel helpless.”
It’s a progressive disease, often starting with simple memory loss issues which then evolve into more serious cognitive impairments. And it is expected to affect close to one million Canadians by 2030.
“We want the focus to be on preventing the disease by giving money that goes directly to research,” said Reitman.
Ninety per cent of the funds donated through the program’s website will go directly to the researchers: Alan Evans at the Neuro, known for his groundbreaking work in brain mapping, which will contribute to a better understanding of dementia, and Andréa LeBlanc, who is seeking a valid therapeutic target through her work at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research at the JGH.
Aside from bringing together these researchers and institutions and keeping fundraising focused on an actual cure rather than patient care, Reitman also wanted to keep it young and fresh by using a website and social media to reach out to those not yet worried about Alzheimer’s — people under 40 and millennials.
“I was hoping to attract not only older people who are already very conscious of the disease, but to make the younger generation more aware of it,” Reitman said. “We want young people to be aware they are at risk; everyone is at risk.”
She believes MARC will fill a gap in research funding for Alzheimer’s by placing the emphasis on early detection and treatment of the debilitating disease. LeBlanc said philanthropic funds play an important role because government funding responds to more calculated needs.
“Getting this kind of funding really helps the science go forward,” she said in an interview. “It allows scientists to take risks.”
Her work has focused on the discovery of elevated levels of the enzyme Caspase-6 in the brain and she has built a strong case that Caspase-6 is a probable causal factor for Alzheimer’s cognitive impairment. In fact, she says she is about to publish new research saying the damage is reversible, at least in mice, and her goal is to bring a drug to clinical trial, which is very costly.
In Evans’ large 60-person lab at the Neuro, the search is on for biomarkers that change during the course of the disease and which may offer some insight into how brain function comes undone.
“That really requires heavy computational resources,” said Jake Vogel, a PhD student in neuroscience in Evans’ lab, where neuroimaging is used to better understand how the disease progresses. “We are trying to model it and predict how it will spread so we can make inferences about the key biological players. Then you can begin to have targets for treatments.”
He said the two teams have a great collaborative spirit and there is “a palpable air of trying to build something that can make an impact.”
Both he and LeBlanc said that even delaying the disease by as little as two to five years could have a significant impact on incidence — reducing it by as much as half.
Vogel said Reitman’s idea of appealing to younger people is inspired. If they are seeing what’s happening to Grandpa, they need to know that “next up is your mom and dad.”
Don’t wait until it’s your turn, is the message to young people.
“Let’s deal with this now so by the time you’re older it won’t be something you have to worry about,” said Vogel.
To contribute, go to marc-fund. ca.