I am 63 years old, and I have Alzheimer’s disease. June was Alzheimer’s Awareness Month and the month I was diagnosed two years ago.

After more than 25 years, I had to retire my position as a professor who conducted research and taught about the relationship between environment and cancer. I wrote more than 100 articles and reports. But now I need significant help to write this letter.

I was a taxpaying citizen. Now you citizens are funding my disability benefits as well as the benefits of others in my support group, including a former educator who is only 55.

The image of an elderly woman in a nursing home is no longer an accurate picture of the disease. A photo of my support group around the conference table would look like a group of boomers at an office meeting.

The drugs prescribed for Alzheimer’s are supposed to reduce symptoms, but they don’t work for me, and many others. I am ill with the only major cause of death without effective treatment, let alone cure.

The reason: Alzheimer’s loses the political battles for research funding.

My friends and I will die of a disease that is the most expensive in the United States, $200 billion per year in care. But research funding is a mere pittance, measured in millions. Scientists developed a plan to cure and treat Alzheimer’s by 2025. That will not happen at this rate of funding.

You should demand that politicians fund more and better studies. Although too late for my buddies and me, it may save your life and the lives of those you love.

Daniel Wartenberg (with assistance from Caron Chess)

Peaks Island