Team Beverly Horsley - Honoring Beverly Cole Horsley (1947-2019)

The real reason I walk for ALZ is my mother Beverly Cole Horsley. Her cognitive decline led her to a neurologist who ordered a brain scan that identified a meningioma brain tumor. That sent her on multiple trips to Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, and then to more trips to brain tumor specialists at Johns Hopkins at Bethesda, MD, over a period of two years or more. Their treatment recommendation was for radiation, not surgery or chemotherapy, involving 29 micro radiation treatments. 

Afterward, Mom's cognitive decline continued apace. Her Neurologist declined to officially label it Alzheimer's since at that time a definitive ALZ diagnosis required a very costly test on the brain. Mom's General Practitioner, however, declared her condition to be Alzheimer's.

The traumatic journey from that point lasted hardly a year, supported by family, friends, our church, tremendous caring aid from a Home Instead team, and finally, Hospice. Mom passed away 11 days after her 54th wedding anniversary. She was only 73 years old. Her grandmother had lived to her 90s, her mother to almost 90, one aunt to 94, and another is still alive at 100+

I walk in honor of Beverly Cole Horsley. I raise funds for ALZ care research and support so that others might not have to suffer through this unfair disease.  Let's end ALZ!