Man behind the voice of Iowa Lottery's 'Woo-hoo' is suffering from Alzheimer's
June 21 is the summer solstice, the day of the year with the most daylight hours. On the summer solstice, people worldwide take part in The Longest Day, where they spread awareness of Alzheimer's disease.
The family of Kent Fieldsend is taking part in fundraising efforts.
Kent Fieldsend is no stranger to the spotlight.
"One of his trademarks that I know most Iowans are familiar with is the Iowa Lottery "woo-hoo!" That's him," said Kent's daughter Hillary Fieldsend.
That "woo-hoo" has tickled audiences for years.
Now, you know the man behind the voice. Kent's family is using their voice to shed light on the dark road their future is facing.
"We had an incident where he took off driving and we ended up getting a call from the sheriff's office in Osceola that said, 'Hey, I found your dad, he's run out of gas and he had just forgotten where he was going,'" Hillary Fieldsend said.
What started as forgetfulness, quickly escalated to not being able to do day-to-day tasks.
That's when they went to the memory clinic.
"We were given a diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's and it was severe at that point," Kent's daughter Tess Johnson said.
Sixty-six-thousand Iowans are living with Alzheimer's disease — a disease that erodes memory and worsens over time.
And there is no cure.
"While having a diagnosis was a relief, yeah it was gut wrenching, it was just a punch to the stomach," Hillary Fieldsend said. "So I was holding out this ounce of hope that maybe we're the one family that his disease doesn't progress, or we're the one family that finds a cure, or the one family that this all ends up being okay. Unfortunately, we've just watched him deteriorate and it's devastating because his body is healthy, but he's not who he used to be."
The father of four dedicated his life to his family, his church, his career.
Now, in his final days, his adult children are living out his legacy.
"We learned resilience from him and so we just try and be as resilient as possible and move on from hard days and get stronger from hard days," Tess Johnson said.
Kent now receives full-time care. In an effort to not disrupt his routine, he was unable to be interviewed.
Kent's children see him every day.
To join the fight to End Alzheimer's, visit the Alzheimer's Association's website.
You can also join Alyx Sacks and the Alzheimer's Association for the Purple Soiree this Friday for a night of food, entertainment, and education.
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