The U.S. House and Senate appropriations leaders recently announced their intent to increase Alzheimer’s research funding next year.

In 2016, the National Institutes of Health are expected to receive nearly $1 billion per year for Alzheimer’s research.

Perry resident Bob Nevitt, who lost his wife Barbara to the disease in 2013 and has since pushed for more research funding, says the news is “outstanding”.

“This is a huge step towards finding a cure for this dreaded disease” says Nevitt.  He adds that this not only helps researchers do a better job, it “helps our care providers so they can do a good job of helping those people that are diagnosed with the disease.”

Alzheimer’s is the only cause of death among the nation’s top 10 that cannot be prevented, cured or even slowed.  Nevitt says “if we don’t’ invest now and find a cure the consequences could be devastating by 2050.” At that point, he says it could cost over a trillion dollars per year just to treat those patients so “we need to act now!”

Nevitt, along with several others from Iowa, traveled to Washington D.C. earlier this year to lobby for additional research funding.  He says their efforts were also helped by lobbying with several presidential candidates, which kept the issue open for the entire year.

On a personal note, the widower says there is nothing that would mean more to his family than to find a cure.

“We have this disease hanging over our heads everyday.  This disease is hereditary and me as a father and grandfather worries about my kids and grandkids having this disease in the future.”

Nevitt says he and others will continue the fight against Alzheimer’s until a cure is found.