For 19 hours and 26 minutes, 60-year-old Steve McNeil will be skating around Bracebridge’s Memorial Park.
He skates for that specific amount of time in honour of his late mother who battled Alzheimer’s for 20 years. She was born on December 15, 1926.
“I watched my mother as I grew up and became a man. Then I watched this disease take her away from me. This is my tribute to my mom,” MacNeil adds.
He will step on the ice in Bracebridge Friday at midnight and go until 7:26 PM Saturday. It will be his 30th skate since he started the initiative 10 years ago. “I’m so lucky,” he says. “I get to skate on the coolest outdoor rinks in the country.”
MacNeil estimates he’s helped raise over $100,000 for Alzheimer’s societies across Canada. You can donate to his fundraiser’s for Muskoka’s Alzheimer’s society online.
According to the Alzheimer Society of Muskoka, over 2,700 people in Muskoka live with the disease or one of its other forms. According to officials with the society, that number is expected to double over the next decade.
“While the risk of dementia doubles every five years after age 65, dementia is not a natural part of aging,” Trisha Soja, Resource Development Coordinator with the society, says. “Dementia can occur in people as early as their 30s, and it can be present in the brain for up to 25 years before symptoms occur.”
“Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias is an irreversible and progressive brain disorder that slowly weakens memory, thinking, skills, and eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks,” Karen Quemby, the Society’s Executive Director, says. “It really is the long goodbye and touches so many people in our community let alone the 1.1 million Canadians affected.”
One of the things that helps MacNeil get through the skates is blasting music from the legendary Australian rockers AC/DC. Malcolm Young, one of the band’s founders, was diagnosed with dementia, which is a form of Alzheimer’s, in 2014. It was then that MacNeil decided he would listen to the band non-stop during his skates. “It doesn’t matter what AC/DC song you put on, your toes start tapping,” he says.
A few years later, MacNeil says a man stopped by one of his skates and said his dad wanted to talk to him. MacNeil, assuming his dad was battling Alzheimer’s, agreed. “He says, ‘my dad’s not battling Alzheimer’s, my dad is the drummer for AC/DC,'” MacNeil says.
He spent the next few minutes chatting with Chris Slade. The next morning it got even better. MacNeil was connected with the other co-founder of the band, Angus Young and his wife. MacNeil says the two ended up donating $19,260 to the Alzheimer’s Music Project.
This month the Alzheimer Society of Muskoka is promoting its First Link program which helps people who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s access the services they need. “Such services include counseling support and a better understanding of the different healthcare options,” Soja explains. “Staff will provide the appropriate access to the right services during the different stages of the disease.”
More details on the program are on the society’s website.