What a crazy summer it has been.
It started on June 15 with a national radio interview with Matt Galloway on CBC’s The Current. At the end of July, we received a call from the Canadian Alzheimer’s Society asking if we would do another interview, this time with CBC TV news. We agreed to call the CBC and get the details.
The CBC told us that they wanted to interview Leah and me at our residence, outside, on Aug. 4 or Aug. 5 regarding the new drug aducanumab, marketed as Aduhelm. We agreed and were told that a reporter and cameraman would arrive at our residence in Seaforth on Tuesday, August 4. The whole shoot and interview was scheduled for approximately three hours.
The reporter’s name was Christine, a graduate of University of Toronto in Environmental Science. I asked why she was a reporter, with that background, and she said that she couldn’t find an environment job so decided to go to Humber College and become a journalist. She is now the health reporter for the CBC National News. The cameraman’s name was Turgut. He is an electrical engineer and, I gather, does many tech things for the CBC. They were both very personable and professional. He handled lights, sound and camera for us. She did the interview.
We had agreed and expected to do the interview on our back deck overlooking the golf course. We were wrong. They arrived at 11:30 a.m., right on time, but, after looking over our property Turgut said that the light was too strong because of the sun on the deck. Much to our dismay, they wanted to set upon our front porch which was not very large and being renovated, but apparently the north light was better.
So, out came the lights, the sound boom and the two cameras, and they got everything organized with chairs for Leah and I, side by side, and the reporter facing the appropriate distance away. A mini studio was created. The interview took a little over an hour with Christine asking very perceptive questions about Aduhelm and how my dementia affected both of us.
After the interview Turgut asked us to come to the back of our house to take pictures of our gardens, the golf course, etc. It was funny that six of Leah’s golfing buddies came along and Turgut took pictures of all of us. After all this had finished, we didn’t have any idea of what would be on when it was broadcast. It would be a surprise.
A week later we learned that it would be on The National on Thursday, Aug. 11. We didn’t watch it on the CBC Toronto channel, but we tuned in on the CBC News channel at 9 p.m. and there we were, at 9:35 p.m., along with three others being interviewed on national TV – exciting! I guess the whole segment lasted about 10 minutes. Because it was on the CBC National channel, I was able to watch again and again it as it repeated every hour through the night. I actually watched it five times that night; I didn’t want to forget it. Unfortunately, I didn’t record it.
The CBC did a great job. I was presented as an 82-year-old active Canadian who kept very busy with gardening, golfing and exercising even though I had been diagnosed with dementia in 2013. I was quoted as saying, “I don’t fear dying, but I don’t want to get Alzheimer’s…and end up in a long-term care home as a vegetable.” My position in the interview was that Aduhelm might help me to avoid that bad ending to my life. I hope Canada Health approves Aduhelm for Canadians.
The following interviews were also shown on in the Aduhelm segment on TV on Aug. 11.
– A famous neurological doctor, a specialist from Baycrest Hospital, felt that the company Biogen, who created aducanumab 10 years prior, had not provided enough proof that the Aduhelm would work as claimed.
– A doctor from The Alzheimer’s Society of Canada who felt that the FDA’s approval in the USA may contribute to additional funds coming into research of Alzheimer’s, but current proof of effectiveness was lacking.
– The husband, whose wife who had participated in the Canadian clinical trial of the drug a few years ago, did not think that she received any benefit from the drug and his wife was now in a care home.
There was another interview involving hearing loss and it was explained that a negative hearing test can indicate a loss of hearing and therefore could possibly be a precursor to dementia. It was interesting to me as I have had a cochlear implant for the last 10 years to help me hear because of a hearing impairment that started many years before.
All in all, it was a very informative program.
And “My Voyage with Dementia” continues with me still living the ‘good life.’
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Bob Murray is retired from the graphic communication (printing) industry and has been living in Seaforth since 2015. Murray was diagnosed with Dementia in 2013 and works hard to stop the progress of the disease to AD. He shares his experiences in his column entitled “My Voyage with Dementia.” Follow him on his blog entitled Voyage with Dementia – https://myvoyage553264702.wordpress.com
