Richard Apple

Richard is the 2019 Citizen Scientist Champion Award honoree. His passion for Alzheimer’s disease research advocacy stems from having lost two of his grandparents to Alzheimer’s and having been the primary caregiver to his uncle and his mother, both of whom died from the disease. “Caring for my family members taught me how little the health system knows about caring for individuals with dementia,” Apple says. “If I happen to be in a study that’s successful, I’ll be in on the ground floor of the treatment. It would be very positive to postpone or avoid what I went through with my family.” He enrolled in his first trial at Great Lakes Clinical Trials in Chicago, IL immediately after he retired and has participated in four studies overall. Richard resides in Rockford, IL.