Here's the sobering truth: despite close to 40 years of substantial private and public investment, society has not come up with any meaningful medication to help those with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Today, some 750,000 Canadians live with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.

I recently paid $50 to attend a preview screening of the movie, Still Alice. The film was to start at 7 p.m. But it began 40 minutes late. Not only did executives of each of the sponsors insist on their (equal) time at the podium, but, much like victims of an interminable home invasion, the 500 of us in the audience had to endure "greetings" from three different politicians. Why do we put up with this?

Canadians give of ourselves in many ways.In short, about half of us spend time shaping our communities and enabling charities and non-profit organizations to deliver programs and services to the other half.