Erwin Woman Living With Early-Stage Alzheimer's to Join Fayetteville Walk in Her Father's Memory

Hundreds of people are expected to gather in Fayetteville on Saturday for the annual Walk to End Alzheimer's, an event that brings together families touched by a disease affecting more than seven million Americans.

That number amounts to roughly one in nine people age 65 and older in the United States. Someone in the country receives an Alzheimer's diagnosis every 65 seconds, and each case involves a person, a family and a story of perseverance.

One of the participants will be Amy Hamby of Erwin, who is walking both as a daughter who lost her father and as someone now living with the disease herself. Hamby will wear a Team Poppy shirt, a nod to her father, whom the family affectionately called "Poppy."

Hamby's father died in 2008. At that time, she said, the family did not understand the genetic dimension of the illness. "I had no clue, even as a nurse, which sounds pretty dumb, but I had no clue that he carried the gene and that I would end up carrying the gene as well," she said.

She was diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer's in 2024, at age 59. Before that, she said, she assumed her symptoms were "COVID brain fog" because that was the explanation widely discussed at the time. "Then a couple of years later, I thought, 'Something's not right,'" she recalled.

Testing showed Hamby has two copies of the APOE-4 gene, a significant risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's. One copy raises a person's risk two to three times, while two copies can increase it by as much as 10 to 15 times.

She is now waiting for treatment. Approved therapies carry considerable risk for her because of the two gene copies, she said, but she considers it worthwhile. "I am waiting for treatment, so if I can get those approved treatments are pretty risky for me because I have two copies of the gene, but it's worth it," Hamby said.

Daily life is not always easy. Hamby sometimes asks her children to repeat questions. Still, she continues to enjoy cooking, a lifelong passion, and flipped through a cookbook of family recipes that bring back fond memories. She likes sharing meals with her family, she said.

Since her diagnosis, Hamby has taken her advocacy to Raleigh, where she has worked to help pass legislation supporting Alzheimer's research and care. "I've got hopefully a lot of years with my children and I want to live life to the fullest," she said.

The walk begins at 9 a.m. Saturday at Segra Stadium. Registration remains open for anyone who wants to take part or show support.