Legendary local sportswriter Bill Lyon has a long list of titles — journalist, columnist emeritus, Pulitzer Prize nominee — and now he can add one more: hero.
The new resume bullet point was given by Dr. Jason Karlawish during a live interview on WHYY’s Radio Times October 4.
“Bill Lyon is a hero, and he’s a hero because he has the courage to talk publicly about having Alzheimer’s disease,” Karlawish said. “He’s educating and empowering the nation to be able to talk about this disease and face it.”
Karlawish diagnosed Lyon with Alzheimer’s disease — Al, as Lyon calls it — in 2013 at the Penn Memory Center. Lyon took the diagnosis public in the summer of 2016, when he launched a series of columns in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
“My hope is that the columns will be cathartic and perhaps be of some help to anyone else who’s going down this same long and winding road,” he wrote at the beginning of the series.
Radio Times and host Mary Cummings-Jordan continued the conversation on WHYY, inviting Lyon, Karlawish, and Felicia Greenfield, PMC director of clinical research operations and care programs.
Karlawish discussed the state of Alzheimer’s disease research at the University of Pennsylvania and beyond; Greenfield discussed resources and options for caregivers.
“You are preparing for a marathon,” Greenfield told caregivers listening to the show. She advised caregivers to engage in self-care, ask for help, and socialize.
The complete episode is available at www.whyy.org.