AARP 2009 Inspire Award winners

For 20 years before his mother’s death in 2004 at age 89, actor Peter Gallagher witnessed her gradual descent into the oblivion that characterizes Alzheimer’s disease. Gallagher, 53, a film and Broadway veteran who most recently starred on the hit TV series The O.C., immersed himself in the search for a cure.

He serves on the National Advisory Council of the Alzheimer’s Association, organizes Los Angeles-chapter fundraisers, and participates in fundraising Memory Walks, all with the unshakable belief that treatments for this devastating disease will be found before too long. Until that happens, the actor won’t give up.

“It makes me feel less powerless,” he says. “I do it for my mother. It’s the best way I can think of to honor her.”

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