COLUMBIA, S.C. — A University of South Carolina student is determined to fight against Alzheimer's through an upcoming walk. Summer Schwedes's mom was diagnosed with young-onset Alzheimer's at 47 when Summer was only 13.
“I knew she had Alzheimer's. I knew something was wrong, but I didn't even accept that it was terminal or fatal," USC freshman Summer Schwedes said.
Summer said that, at an early age, she denied her mother's condition. She didn't even want to look it up.
"It took a while for me to get over that hump, to say that, yeah, she's not going to be at my high school graduation. I'm not going to get to be with her and have a dance at my wedding," she said. "And that was, like, a big kind of realization to take, so I avoided it for a while."
Her mom was diagnosed in 2019, but her family had seen symptoms for years prior when they were living in Virginia. Her mother would have outbursts, forget Summer's name and sometimes couldn't even recognize herself in the mirror.
“I'm a teenager wanting to have my mom during some of those teenage years -- especially a girl you want to relate to that; talk about things that's going on with friends and high school. And she just wasn't there, and that's obviously not her fault, but it was difficult to accept," said Schwedes.
Alzheimer's disease is a brain disorder that causes a gradual decline in memory, thinking, and the ability to perform daily tasks. Summer describes her mother as the most bubbly, extroverted person in the room. Now, she's down to less than 100 different words that she can speak. At one point, she and her father became full-time caregivers. Memory Care Facilities became expensive, and the family wanted to move, so they relocated to Florida, where her mother is now at a full-time memory care facility.
Now, she's doing something to fight against the disease that caused heartache for her family. Summer has raised over $1,400 for this year's Walk to End Alzheimer's in Columbia.
“The walk to end Alzheimer's is an opportunity for people who feel passionately about working towards a way to end all that," said Taylor Wilson with the Alzheimer's Association South Carolina Chapter. "We work together by fundraising to provide money for research."
"Alzheimer's Association is the largest nonprofit funder of Alzheimer's research ... on the globe, and that's really important because that is funded by people who do the walk to end Alzheimer's, people who do the Ride to End ALZ," Wilson added. "All of those people, their money is going to help us find a way to end this disease for future generations and find our first survivor."
While Summer is getting ready for the walk, she's also excited to see her mom during Winter Break.
"Play some music, because she's still able to, like, sing along and dance. I think that's one of the things that's so cool about how the brain works, is it's still able to register music even at such a late stage, so we'll go dance in her room, spend a good time, because she's always loved music,” Schwedes said.
This year's Walk to End Alzheimer's will be on Oct. 19 at Segra Park. You can help Summer walk to end Alzheimer's by visiting the event website and looking up Summer's name.