Peg Wessel will walk in memory of her mother, Martha Nichols, who struggled with Alzheimer’s disease for 12 years before she died.

“It’s a disease that strikes an individual, but after a while they’re happy in their own world,” said Wessel, a Lawrence nurse. “But it affects the family so much. They’re watching this person become a shell before their eyes.”

The irreversible brain disorder also struck four of Nichols’ seven siblings.

Wessel said the family’s experience motivated her to organize the 2003 Alzheimer’s Assn. Memory Walk at 9 a.m. Sept. 13 in Lawrence.

The goal is to attract at least 200 people to an event starting in the parking lot of Hy-Vee, 3504 Clinton Parkway, and will include a 1-mile stroll, 2-mile walk and 5-mile challenge. Walkers can form teams. Proceeds go to support local patient care and counseling services for patients and relatives.

“We’d really like to build this one to monumental proportions,” Wessel said.

The disease has stricken more than 4 million Americans, and new findings by the Rush Institute on Healthy Aging indicate as many as 16 million people could have Alzheimer’s by 2050. The primary reason for the rise is the fact that many more people are expected to live into their 80s and 90s.

Wessel was 27 years old with two young children when her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. It was a struggle to balance demands of her own family and work in addition to her mother’s needs, she said.

Nichols, widowed in 1968, had always lived an independent life in Effingham. That changed as her health eroded. There was memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, personality changes, disorientation and loss of language skills.

¢ Devotion to dad outlasts 15 years of Alzheimer’s (6-15-03)

Nichols lived in a nursing home for 10 years before dying in 1996.

“The decision-making is hard,” Wessel said. “And they (patients) tend to be hardest with people closest to them.”

Wessel was more prepared for her mother’s disease than most people. She is a registered nurse, and has been director of nursing at Baldwin Care Center and Brandon Woods Retirement Community in Lawrence.

But she still benefited from attending support group meetings organized by the Alzheimer’s Assn.

“It helped me understand it wasn’t Peggy she was striking out at,” Wessel said. “It was the disease.”