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PHOENIX - For Mark Garrity and Leonard Chayrez, their goal is to live life to the fullest – full of love, laughs and positivity – helping shed light on life's ups and downs.
"Things started really changing, and we saw it, but we didn't know what was happening," Garrity said.
In the United States, about 6.7 million adults aged 65 and older have Alzheimer's disease, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Leonard was diagnosed at a much younger age of 54. They say at first, many of his doctors even brushed off his concerns.
Everything was just becoming very complicated and I didn't understand why," Chayrez said.
"Argue with the doctors that this isn't just stress, this is something really different," Garrity said.
This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Alzheimer's drug Leqembi. The move marks the first time that a drug meant to slow down the progression of the disease has been granted full regulatory approval.
"The benefit is that it helps the slow cognitive decline by about 27% after about 18 months of treatment," said Meredith Wicklund, a Mayo Clinic neurologist. "Unfortunately, it doesn’t improve cognition, but it does help solve both cognitive and functional decline, allowing individuals to stay in a good functioning state for as long as possible."
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The move also helps save Leonard about $26,000 a year.
"I was thrilled. I was thrilled," Garrity said.
"You go to get infusions twice a week it was going to be, I was figuring just south of five grand a month, but since it’s been approved and CMS is going to cover it, it's like we are ready to go," Chayrez said.
But that time is ticking. The drug is prescribed for those in the early stages of the disease. Leonard will have his first infusion later this month.
"Every day 2,000 people move from early stage to middle stage; their door is shut. So that’s 2,000 people a day, so we need to jump on this as quickly as we can so that we can keep him in the early stage as long as possible," Garrity said.