Alzheimer's Awareness Month 2025: Meet Joe and Amy

Keeping track of time by watching the ferries come and go from their home in Victoria, Joe Ross and Amy Cameron explain that they now “function as a pair.” This shift is quite different from their earlier working lives, where they both traveled extensively for different jobs. This new mindset has evolved after 30 years of friendship, almost a decade of marriage, and a move from Europe to Vancouver Island as a result of Amy’s diagnosis of young-onset Alzheimer’s disease in her 50s.

Together, Joe and Amy navigate their journey with the support of a community of people affected by dementia — connections they first made while participating in the Alzheimer Society of B.C.’s Shaping the journey education series. Designed for people experiencing early symptoms of dementia and their care partners, they enrolled in this program soon after Amy’s diagnosis.

“It’s educational but the education is not the most important,” Joe says. “It’s meeting all the other couples going through this.”

For Amy, being introduced to this community helped her come to terms with a diagnosis that she initially felt was “devastating.”

“I saw that some people in these groups were still really sharp and active. So, I realized I can be that too,” Amy says. “That took a while to sink in, but I soon realized the diagnosis was not as debilitating as I first thought. You realize you’re not on your own and that you’re not the only one.”

After completing Shaping the journey, the couple participated in several more of the Alzheimer Society of B.C.’s workshops before joining a weekly “coffee and chat” with the friends they had made along the way and meeting new friends through the group. They describe this group—made up of people of all ages, backgrounds and dementia diagnoses—as “a lifesaver,” especially as the couple continues to seek programming that fits with Amy’s lifestyle and where she is in her journey.

“When all of this started, Amy was going on five to 10 kilometer runs and we were riding our bikes 100 kilometers a week,” Joe says. “We understand how programs like Minds in Motion® are good for some people, but we feel like we don’t need that kind of support yet. We are kind of in this limbo, which is why it was so good to meet so many other people affected by dementia.”

Joe and Amy prefer to participate in programs together as a couple, rather than attending groups intended for only caregivers or people living with dementia.

“When we do things on our own it just feels odd,” Joe says. “When we go to classes or groups as a couple, it feels like we are in this together — which we are. It’s a shared journey for both of us.”

Joe and Amy remain focused on that shared journey as they look ahead to the future. They attend symphonies and live music performances when they can, take walks, try to motivate each other to go to the pool, take part in weekly Zoom calls with their families and watch the ferries — cherishing the moments they can spend together.