SPOTLIGHT: Sameera Ansari & Vipin Kalra

Each week we will be picking members to spotlight to tell their Alzheimer's story and why they are running in this year's New York City marathon. Check in each Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday for new updates on who will be spotlighted and get to know your teammates...(each person is picked at random)

My aunt, Haleema Shaikh, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s 5 years ago but she was displaying signs of the disease for many years before that. While I suspected that her forgetfulness, paranoia and changing personality were not “normal aging”, it was hard to talk to family members about it because, as doctors, they could not see what diagnosis was required in the early stages. When I took her to her primary care doctor, he didn’t examine her, but instead treated her with a prescription for Dramamine because she said she had symptoms of nausea and dizziness. This continued for many about six years until 2006, while Vipin and I were traveling in China, we got word that my aunt had received a diagnosis for her increasingly alarming behavior – Alzheimer’s Disease. While I was glad to have a diagnosis, finally, it came with a prediction that due to her poor health, she would not make it six more months to the end of year. I raced back to the States and almost decided not to start law school a few weeks later. Family flew in from all over to say goodbye to her. But of course, just like every other expectation that had ever been placed on her, my aunt defied the six month death sentence and is still with us today.

My aunt was the second child of 11 siblings. While she was in medical school in Pakistan, my mom (the youngest) was born and contracted pneumonia. The doctors suggested to my grandparents that my mom was too weak to live, and they should just give up on her, but my aunt wouldn't hear of it, so she left med school for a few weeks and nursed my mom back to health. In an amazing twist of karmic irony, my mom is her primary caregiver now.

Haleema Aunty went on to live an amazing life – she traveled the world, she lived in many different countries in Europe, and worked as an OBGYN in England for many years. She moved to New York when my mom wanted to move to New York from Bombay with me when I was three. Haleema aunty came with us so that my mom could work and go to school and Haleema aunty could take care of me. She became a ‘second mom’ to me, getting me ready for school school, making my favorite foods, taking me shopping. Once again, in one of those ironic twists that life takes, I now share care giving tasks with my mom which include some of those very same things she did for me.

The reason that Vipin and I run, is to honor Haleema Aunty by bringing awareness to the disease that ravages her mind and body and every other person affected with Alzheimer’s Disease. I think that there is some symmetry in the physical transformation that we put ourselves through during marathon training which mirrors the physical transformation that a person with Alzheimer’s goes through, in contrasting fashions.

Perhaps more importantly, we have found that training for the marathon is a way to talk to people about the disease and raise money for research so that someday, hopefully soon, there will be a cure.