Anne Fraser has lost far too many family members to dementia and Alzheimer’s - including her own parents. So when she was diagnosed herself with pre-Alzheimer’s she decided to take matters, and her health, into her own hands.
“After taking care of my parents for three years, I now had to take care of my own health,” said Fraser, a real estate professional with The Fraser Team at EXP Realty.
Anne saw an integrative medical doctor who took a deep dive into her background and family medical history.
“She said to me, ‘You know, they are actually reversing this now,’” Anne recalled. “I knew I was starting to have cognitive issues, but I was scared to speak about it - if you speak it, then it’s real.”
Dementia is considered a lifestyle disease, inflammatory disease and type 3 diabetes. So her battle was to tackle just that - her own health.
“Every month, I would take on one thing at a time,” she said. “I was working to get my hormones up and within six weeks, my cognition was getting better. I had to make a full lifestyle change.”
Anne took her improving health and coupled it with her joy of dancing to create the Night of Hope Gala and Night of Hope 501c3 nonprofit organization - a cause “rooted in the belief that we all have an inherent responsibility to make a meaningful difference in our community. With a variety of active projects and a large volunteer staff, we harness our skills and resources to successfully achieve our goal of Alzheimer's awareness.”
“We started with a conversation about having a backyard party, but within five minutes I decided we were going to have a gala.”
It was June of 2021 when Fraser and her team hosted the first Night of Hope Gala, raising more than $20,000.
“After that, people came out of the woodwork and offered to help with the next gala,” she said.
Some of those dedicated volunteers came from Path’s Law Firm in Lee’s Summit, several of whom sit on Fraser’s Board and volunteer for the gala committee.
“They were invited to the gala last year and became corporate sponsors,” she said. “When I met with Rusty and Hilary we just hit it off and they said, ‘We want to back you and be involved,’ They work with a lot of families dealing with dementia. It’s a rough road for families, and I have lived that.”
With increased attention and support 2022 was a blowout, raising more than $130,000 during the 300-person event held at Fiorella’s Event Space.
The Night of Hope Gala is the headline event for the nonprofit, and Fraser also has a podcast called “Bringing Hope to Alzheimer’s with Anne Fraser” that began in March.
With the nonprofit focus and the 2023 Gala in the works, Fraser has a message for those who have family histories of dementia and Alzheimer’s: “Pre-Alzheimer’s can potentially be reversed,” she said. “We want to bring to light that there are things you can do to make your brain better. The earlier you start taking care of your brain, the better your brain will be as you grow older. It takes 15-25 years on average for someone to have full-blown Alzheimer’s. It’s a slow-progressing disease.”
“People will chalk it up to just getting older or stress, but what you put in your body and getting 8 to 9 hours of good, quality sleep every night are just a few things that help brain health.”
The 2023 Night of Hope Gala is scheduled for Saturday, June 10 at Fiorella’s Event Space in Overland Park, KS. Tickets and information can be found at thenightofhope.com.