Craig Burns - Kelowna Honouree

2019 IG Wealth Management Walk for Alzheimer's

Craig Burns built his career in health and education charities on a desire to help others reach their potential – a calling he continues to pursue with passion along his journey with Alzheimer’s disease.

“I’m the person who wants to see people succeed in whatever stage of life they’re in,” he says.

It’s an approach Craig, a self-described communicator and good listener, lives daily in the transition from his role in non-profit management to one of advocacy for people living with dementia. Caregiving for his mother during her journey with Alzheimer’s disease had shown him the many stages of the disease – and the resources available to him through the Alzheimer Society of B.C. following his own diagnosis in 2016. With his diagnosis came the difficult reality of losing his job, but it was also a relief in understanding why he had been experiencing cognitive changes.  

“That first year was difficult because I was trying to wrap my brain around what was going on. I was trying to sort out life and to see what the future would bring.”

Alongside challenges, the future brought a valued, supportive relationship with researchers in a clinical drug trial and the purpose of joining the Alzheimer Society of B.C.’s advisory group of people living with dementia. Craig was inspired by other members of the group and has since set his sights on making health-care provider education more dementia-friendly in Kelowna, where he has lived for the last 28 years.

Craig’s faith and his close relationship with his family pulled him through when the prospects of the future were too difficult to accept. “I’ve since come to live more one-day-at-a-time,” he says.

Those days are active ones. Whether engaging in his favourite sports — cross country skiing, biking, walking or roller blading — chasing after his twin three-year-old grandchildren or supporting other members of his early stage dementia support group, Craig rejects the idea of spending this phase of his life at home alone.

“Life is not a spectator sport,” he says. “Be active and involved.”

Walk with Craig at the Kelowna IG Wealth Management Walk for Alzheimer's on Sunday, May 5. Together, we make memories matter.