JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – More than 17,000 people in Duval County are living with Alzheimer’s disease right now. Combining our News4JAX neighbors in surrounding counties including St. Johns, Nassau and Clay, that number jumps to more than 30,000.
Jacksonville’s chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association is encouraging people to wear purple on Friday as a way to show support to those with the disease and others providing care for them.
There is a free 24/7 helpline through the Alzheimer’s Association that allows people to ask questions, have someone to talk to if they are experiencing a difficult time or just want more information to better help their loved one.
That number is 1-800-272-3900.
More than 580,000 people living in Florida are battling Alzheimer’s disease.
Michelle Jarjoura watched her father, Hanna, live with it for 13 years.
He died in March 2020 at 95 years old.
Now, Michelle works with the Alzheimer’s Association in Jacksonville. A lot of her work centers around the annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s event to raise money for research to find a cure, slow it down and outright prevent it.
Michelle wishes she knew more about the helpline while she was caring for her father.
“They can call that helpline where a trained clinician is able to answer those questions, help guide them through whatever situation they are going through,” she said.
Michelle said she knew her dad was not going to get better, but that was also at a time when she was trying to educate herself more on the disease.
She shared she experienced with her dad as he was living with the disease that she will never forget.
“One of the most difficult things I experienced unfortunately although it only happened once for me was where I walked in to the community he was in, the memory care, I was greeting him and I was like, ‘Hey dad.’ He looked at me and he said, ‘can you find my daughter?’ That was one of the hardest things I ever had to experience,” Michelle said. “Knowing your parent doesn’t even recognize you. But I walked away to the corner and I came back and I greeted him, and he remembered me. But that brief moment of him, not remembering who I was or recognizing me, that was very difficult.”
Bill Slupski remembers his father-in-law, Robert Herzog, who died from Alzheimer’s in 2018 at 81 years old.
“He had been very active,” Slupski said. “He was taking college classes up until then. He was a very smart man. That kept his brain active. We think that is what helped him as he struggled with this. He was very active in charity work. He was the chair of the Boys and Girls Club of Delaware. He kept very active up until the end.”
“My dad had a wonderful sense of humor,” said Lynn Slupski, who is Bill’s wife. “He was just someone who is very interested in history and very interested in spiritual matters as well. He was a renaissance man. He was a very well rounded man.”
Slupski said his father-in-law was well-educated, read a lot and was very active, even leading up to his diagnosis.
He says in hindsight, there are some things they think they overlooked early on.
“It was one of those things that after he was diagnosed, and we started looking back on some things,” Slupski said. “He would get agitated. In the past, he was a very patient individual. He was struggling with some things. Certainly the memory and he was very tired. He would have energy for a little bit, but then he would run out of steam quickly. But he was still able to carry on conversations.”
Slupski said a year after his father-in-law’s death, he started his own charity called End Alzheimer’s Motorsports.
It is geared toward go-karting and endurance racing as a way to garner support and raise money for research. He also encourages people to look for signs early on that can potentially lead to early intervention with the disease.
Slupski said the charity started out as just supposed to being just a one-time 24-hour go-karting event in 2019, but something happened that convinced him to extend the course of it.
“What really inspired it to keep going were the number of people who came up to us and thanked us for what we were doing and shared their story about Alzheimer’s disease,” he said.
Since establishing it, Slupski End Alzheimer’s Motorsports has raised more than $35,000, including nearly $7,000 so far in 2025.
The Walk to End Alzheimer’s is scheduled for November 9 at UNF J.B. Coxwell Amphitheater. Registration starts at 1 p.m. The walk kicks off at 2 p.m. (alz.org/JacksonvilleWalk or text WalkJax to 51555)
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, about 1 in 9 people 65 years old and older has Alzheimer’s dementia.
1 in 3 Americans who are 65 years old and older dies with either Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia.
If there are not any significant medical breakthroughs to cure, slow down or outright prevent Alzheimer’s, close to 13 million Americans at least 65 years and older are projected to be affected by Alzheimer’s by 2050. That would be a 6 million increase from where things stand right now.
