Meghan Hatch and Paul Geary are both teachers at Woodland High School. This weekend, the husband and wife will participate in the New England Ride to End Alzheimer's in New Hampshire.
"I needed to do something positive and productive with my grief and my fear," said Hatch, whose mother Linda is living with Alzheimer's Disease.
Meghan and her dad Dan, who is Linda's primary caregiver, plan to get on the bike along with Paul to raise money and awareness to help find a cure. Paul is riding for his brother-in-law's father who passed away from the disease.
"I think the hardest thing about living with Alzheimer's or being a family member of somebody with Alzheimer's is not that they forget you, it's that they forget themselves," said Hatch.
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Meghan's parents met at Maloney High School and will celebrate 53 years of marriage on June 5th.
"It's this loss of communication and connection, not just with each other, but from herself. It's an insidious disease," said Hatch. "Seven million people over the age of 65 are living with the disease and that means tens of millions of family members are suffering the loss everyday, over and over and over again of the people that they love."
The New England Ride to end Alzheimer's has raised over $750,000 this year for the Alzheimer's Association.
"Ninety percent of the money raised by the Alzheimer's Association goes to research," said Geary.
"We need to find a cure, we need to donate, we need people to ride and walk and run," said Hatch. "We need elected officials to keep it at the forefront. We need universities and labs to keep it at the forefront of their work because those numbers [[7 million people over the age of 65 living with Alzheimer's]] are expected to triple without intervention."
The Gearys are doing their part to put an end of the cycle of Alzheimer's in their family. Having Meghan's dad share the ride with her is especially meaningful because Meghan will be able to watch her dad and Paul cross the finish line with her mom by her side.
"It feels like a really beautiful metaphor, just making it work, finding solutions to make it work," said Hatch.
Meghan and Paul are also documenting their fundraising efforts on Team "Be Good."
