After University of Alabama student Katie Hall lost her grandmother to dementia this past April, she was propelled into action, spending her fall break running a marathon in honor of the life her role model lived.

“I lost a huge idol, a huge part of my life,” Katie Hall, a senior majoring in public relations, said. “She was one of the most important people in my life.”

Anna Hall was 91 years old when she was officially diagnosed with dementia in November 2011, but her family believes she struggled with the disease for nearly five years before.

“A lot of people who have a family member diagnosed with dementia take them to a nursing home, drop them off and never see them again,” Katie Hall said. “Many people think, ‘If they can’t remember me, why should I take care of them.’ It’s a heartbreaking reality of the disease. But instead we became caregivers for her. We had a family member by her side every day.”

Alzheimer’s disease, a form of dementia that affects memory, thought and behavior, is just coming to the forefront of medical acknowledgement, said Ellie Simpson, manager of athletic events for the Alzheimer’s Association. She said the disease is the fifth leading cause of death in older Americans, ages 65 and older and more than 5.4 million people in America are currently living with it.

“We come from a long line of forgetful people,” Katie Hall said. “We should have noticed something was wrong earlier, but we didn’t.”

She believes educating people about the disease can lead to early detection, which could then prevent such rapid loss of brain function.

“Unfortunately, it’s not a widely discussed disease, but it affects so many people,” she said. “People don’t talk about it unless they’ve been affected by it, so the more we get the word out, the more we can prevent it.”

Katie Hall, an athlete in high school, planned to get back in shape this year. Researching marathons around the country, she discovered the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, which offered charities a chance to form teams and raise money for their cause. The Alzheimer’s Association was a participating charity.

“People were running in honor of somebody, in memory of someone or just because they believed in the charity’s mission,” Katie Hall said. “It was one of those things that I was running anyways, so I might as well run for my grandmother. To see what my grandmother and family went through, I couldn’t not do it.”

Katie Hall raised money for her run through her love of cooking and clothing. She hosted four fundraising luncheons at various workplaces, established bake sales and earned $200 from selling old clothing through a Facebook photo album.

“She’d train by getting up at 5:30 a.m. and running, and then she’d run in the afternoon sometimes, too,” Rick Hall, Katie Hall’s father, said. “She was on a strict diet and couldn’t eat certain things. She craved chocolate but couldn’t have any … I’ve been around the block six or seven times in my life now, and it takes a lot to impress me. But when someone helps someone who can’t help themselves, it really impresses me.”

Katie Hall ran on a team of 152 in a race of nearly 45,000 runners on Sunday, Oct. 7. She was clad in a houndstooth hat in honor of her University and a pin of a picture of her and her grandmother. Her parents and family members looked on, encouraging her but reminding her that she could stop at any point.

“I was doing something for my grandmother,” Katie Hall said. “I told my mom, ‘Failure is not an option. Granny never gave up. So I’m not going to.’

“I just kept telling myself: She would have wanted this. She would have wanted me to help someone or some family who is going through what we went through.”

Katie Hall raised $1,100, well over her original goal of $1,000, while her marathon team raised a total of more than $149,000. She can continue raising funds through Nov. 1, and said she hopes the money can educate people of the realities of Alzheimer’s disease and help those who have been abandoned by their families.

“If it helps just one patient, one person, one family, it’s worth it,” she said.