Close to 100 people took part in the 2022 Walk for Alzheimer’s in Nanaimo. This years event is on May 28, once again starting at the Nanaimo Yacht Club with registration at 10 a.m. (Kyle Ireland/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Jordan Davidson

walk for a cause

‘A horrible, horrible disease:’ Walk for Alzheimer’s honours Nanaimo caregiver

May 27, 2023 | 9:02 AM

NANAIMO — An annual advocacy walk in Nanaimo for people impacted by declines in cognitive function holds a special meaning this year for a lifelong local resident.

Susan Jarvis said her husband’s dementia worsened to the point where he was recently transferred to a Qualicum Beach facility so he could receive around-the-clock care.

“It’s taken a big load off of me in one sense, but in another sense, it’s just really hard to explain — sadness is a good word. I know it’s something that nobody is going to get better from, and he won’t be coming home ever again. It’s a horrible, horrible disease I’ll tell ya.”

Stan Jarvis was diagnosed 12 years ago.

Able to care for her husband for the bulk of that time, reality set in several months ago when the 79-year-old Jarvis couldn’t continue in her role as caregiver.

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The 2023 Walk for Alzheimer’s takes place on Sunday, May 28, starting at the Nanaimo Yacht Club (400 Newcastle Ave.).

Registration is at 10 a.m., with the walk starting at 11 a.m.

The walk has dual purposes: to raise money in the fight against Alzheimer’s and to provide support for those living with the condition and their caregivers.

Susan Jarvis and her husband Stan. (Alzheimer’s Society of B.C.)

Jarvis said it’s been exceptionally hard not having her husband around, but she knows he’s in good hands with the care facility staff equipped to provide the professional support she wasn’t able to.

“Its been since November of last year that things have really gone downhill, and it became really difficult. Up until then, it was doable…but it’s not doable now.”

Jarvis was among more than 50,000 care partners in B.C. providing an estimated 1.3 million hours of unpaid caregiving for people living with dementia, according to the Alzheimer Society of B.C.

Her husband is on a waiting list for residential care in Nanaimo, and she hopes he can move back to the community by the winter.

Jarvis is unable to make the trek to Qualicum Beach to visit him as often as she’d like.

She credits her children and her support group for helping her through this difficult journey.

“I have so many people that are stepping up to the plate and helping me with so many things, I’m really very very fortunate. Those people have stepped up again, and managed to raise that much money, so that’s a good thing.”

Participants have the chance to win $1,000 by participating in this years Walk for Alzheimer’s in Nanaimo. (Alzheimer Society of B.C.)

While the Jarvis’ have the means to pay for the proper care facility to meet their needs, Susan worries about others who aren’t so fortunate.

When her husband had to be admitted to Nanaimo hospital prior to his continuing care admission, Jarvis was shocked at the conditions he was lodged in, due to a lack of appropriate beds and the shortage of trained workers.

“It’s nobody’s fault, but we don’t have enough beds for these people. He had to go down to the dungeon of the hospital, seriously, it was a dungeon. There were six people in the room, they had no sink, no toilet in the room. They had no windows, it was the most horrible, horrible place, but that’s the only place they have to put these people.”

She said more care facilities are desperately needed to help treat this disease which affects over 747,000 Canadians, and 85,000 B.C. residents and their caregivers.

Jarvis has raised about $1,200 so far for this year’s Walk for Alzheimer’s event in Nanaimo.

For more information on how to donate, you can click here to go walkforalzheimers.ca.

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