For Peggy Edwards, battling Alzheimer's is personal - her 86-year-old mother has been fighting the disease for more than seven years.
Three years ago, Edwards contributed to other walkers at the annual Walk to End Alzheimer's, sponsored by the Greater Missouri Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. Last year, she formed a team, naming it Martha's Memories after her mother.
This year, she led that 12-member team, which included her mother, while also helping to organize a team at her workplace, JCPenney. For each employee who volunteers 10 hours in a three-month period to a charity, the company donates $150 to that charity in the employee's name.
Last year, Martha's Memories exceeded its $1,000 goal, and she hopes it will raise even more this year. The JC Penney team, she said, is also on target to raise more than $1,000 this year.
"They're coming out with new medicines all the time with research and donations, and every penny helps," she said. "I don't know that they'll find anything in my mother's lifetime, but maybe my sister and I if we ever have it, it will be something that will help us."
Edwards said her mother is on a medication intended to slow the progress of the disease, and she can tell the medication helps to put her on an even keel.
"She wasn't her normal self," she said. "We start giving her medicine now, and we don't have the ups and downs and the mood swings, the highs and lows. It just keeps her on an even keel."
Edwards attends an Alzheimer's support group in Columbia.
"Support of friends and family - that means everything," she said.
Martha's Memories and JCPenney were two of 33 teams that brought out several hundred walkers at Sunday's event, which started and ended at the Capitol.
Jessie Kwatamdia, the executive director of the Greater Missouri Chapter, said the goal is to raise $37,500, all of which stays in the central Missouri area for research, care and support of Alzheimer's patients and their families.
"We've seen a growth in our walk in the last couple years," she said.
The organization is taking donations until the end of November. Visit alz.org/greatermissouri for more information.
The assocation also offers a 24/7 help line at 1-800-272-3900.