All those with family members or friends who have been affected by Alzheimers' disease are invited to attend "Candlelight Reflections", a public candlelight service designed "to honor, hope and remember" those both living and deceased who suffer from the disease. The annual event begins at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 5 at St. Luke United Methodist Church in Laurinburg.

"We invite everyone to join us for this candlelight service, which is held to enlighten our communities and leaders to the growing number of people living with Alzheimer's," event facilitator Gillie Edwards said. "We invite you to come light a candle in honor of your family members or friends currently living with this disease, or light a candle to remember those who passed away after having been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. It is our way to pay tribute to them."

The hour long program will include a talk by Karen DeSombre, offsite coordinator for the Hussman Institute for Human Genomics at the University of Miami.

"I will be speaking on the topics of hope, respect and remembrance of Alzheimer's patients," DeSombre said. "It is easy to think of the patients as children, but they are not children, and we need to respect them for the lifetime of experience they have."

DeSombre, who has lost her mother and grandmother to Alzheimer's, is involved in field research dedicated to finding a genetic root to the disease.

"We look for the genes that cause Alzheimer's," she said, "in the hope that we will find something specific enough to diagnose and treat the disease."

DeSombre invites the public to take part in research sponsored by the Institute.

"We enroll both patients suffering from Alzheimer's and healthy individuals over 65 as well," she said. "We have to know what is normal to better understand what Alzheimer's patients are experiencing."

Memory tests and a blood sample are taken from those enrolled in the program.

Edwards, a healthy participant in DeSombre's research, encourages anyone interested to contact the Institute.

"Ms. DeSombre has a good understanding of people's experiences with Alzheimer's," Edwards said. "If you are interested in participating, it is a good way that you can contribute to finding a cure for the disease."

For more information contact DeSombre at 919-732-1485.

"So many people have been affected by this disease, and the numbers are increasing as the senior population grows as well," DeSombre said. "We have to find a way to stop Alzheimer's; everyone wants to have a high quality of life as they age, and this research is extremely important in helping this become a reality."

St. Luke United Methodist Church is located at 1501 Turnpike Road in Laurinburg.