Tulsa couple turns Alzheimer’s diagnosis into national advocacy

When Ashley Sloan started struggling to finish her work reports, she and her husband Lance became concerned. The two had built a joyful life: married 30 years, raising two sons, living in Colorado. Ashley had spent decades working with children with disabilities, helping others. Now, she needed help herself.

“I remember sitting with Ashley and she was struggling more with completing the reports and the more the struggles became evident, it really became upsetting,” Lance said.

What followed was a 16-month journey filled with appointments, tests, and waiting. It took multiple specialists, MRIs, PET scans, and a spinal tap to confirm a diagnosis: Ashley, just 49 years old, had early-onset Alzheimer’s.

After her diagnosis, the Sloan’s left Colorado and returned to Tulsa, where their story together first began.

“My best friends from when I was young, they’re still here,” Ashley said. “Nobody left.”

Surrounded by family and lifelong friends, Ashley still fills her days with purpose. She volunteers twice a week at the Little Light House and is currently traveling back and forth to California as part of a clinical trial. She also has devoted time to being an advocate with the Alzheimer’s Association.

In June, the couple joined more than a thousand advocates in Washington, D.C.

They met with Oklahoma lawmakers and staff, urging support for the Alzheimer’s Screening and Protection Act. The bill would improve early detection of the disease using FDA blood screening tests.

“It's just like that with anything, any cancer or any serious diagnosis, the sooner you know, the better and so the blood test being a preventative option or at a minimum the screening of it, of hey I am having medical, cognitive concerns, knowing they can get a blood test and have a diagnosis or at least a good understanding of knowing with this FDA approved blood test that they actually have early onset Alzheimer's or Alzheimer’s," Lance said.

In the last two years, Ashley and Lance have helped raise more than $70,000 through Tulsa’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s.

“He’s my rock,” Ashley said. “I don’t know what I’d do without him.”