USA Today announces the first in an occasional series of news stories about Bob Blackwell, a 30-year CIA veteran who has been diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Blackwell will also share his experiences at health.usatoday.com.

Blackwell hopes sharing his experiences will build awareness, bust a few myths and blaze new paths toward treatments and a cure: “Putting my experiences out in the light, as opposed to the dark, will help others. I don’t want the next generation to have to deal with it.”

… The Blackwells were disappointed with the lack of guidance at the time of Bob’s diagnosis. Knowing Alzheimer’s can take a path of decline that can last a decade or more and ends in death, they longed for tools to help them traverse the years ahead. “We went away feeling like it was a death sentence. The doctors could have done more than say, ‘You’ve got Alzheimer’s, here’s a website, we’ll see you in six months,’ ” Carol says.

(USA Today photo)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 at 6:33 am and is filed under alzheimer's, personal stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.