To the editor:

November is National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month. As anyone who knows someone with Alzheimer’s can tell you, it is a devastating disease. The call for a cure is more urgent than ever. More than 5.4 million people are living with Alzheimer’s in the United States today. That does not include the caregivers and others affected. Additionally, total payments for health and long-term care services for Alzheimer’s disease cost the U.S. an estimated $183 billion this year. More than 50,000 Kansans are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, expected to grow more than 60,000 in the next 15 years.

But there is hope. H.R. 1897, the Alzheimer’s Breakthrough Act, would provide additional funding for research to find a cure. We should all encourage Rep. Lynn Jenkins to co-sign this bill. Since you started to read this letter, two people were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Before too many more lives are touched, we have to act. It could be our own futures we save.