Published March 1995 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd A Poignant Revelation
Recently, former President Ronald Reagan released a letter to the American media revealing that he is suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. His revelation resulted in a nationwide outpouring of compassion and concern, and it brought renewed attention to this insidious disease. Millions of Americans suffer from Alzheimer's Disease, most of them not on the national stage, but privately, in the bounds of their homes or nursing homes. For all Alzheimer's patients and their loved ones, though, the battle against this disease is a lonely and difficult one, waged primarily within the confines of minds that progressively shut down. Several years ago — in the hope of establishing a network of services in West Virginia to assist the victims of Alzheimer's and their families — I added $9.9 million to a federal appropriations bill to develop the Center for Nuclear Research in Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders at West Virginia University (WVU) in Morgantown. Since that time, I have been successful in adding additional funding to a number of other appropriations measures to expand the Alzheimer's research, treatment, and care network around the state through programs based at WVU and Marshall University in Huntington, as well as through a pilot Alzheimer's day-care facility in Parkersburg. This past summer, I had the opportunity to dedicate the Parkersburg facility, which was launched by the Wood County Senior Citizens Association with the help of $700,000 in federal funding that I had added to a fiscal 1992 appropriations bill. I was struck by the outpouring of gratitude from those who have been touched by Alzheimer's, and that appreciation validated my efforts in West Virginia to help ease the burden of this tragic disease. The latest statistics show that nearly 36,000 West Virginians suffer from Alzheimer's, a disease that counts among its victims an estimated four million men and women nationwide. For all of its victims — from former President Reagan to the millions of average Americans across our land - we must not relent in our efforts to ease the suffering wrought by Alzheimer's Disease. March 1, 1995