A Mahopac woman is preparing to embark on her longest journey to date - a hike in memory of her father.

Karen Ganis is planning an eight-day,115-mile hike in Sicily with 15 other people from around the world to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s disease.  The incurable disease claimed her dad's life 20 years ago.

“When you lose somebody to Alzheimer’s, you don't have goodbye. They're taken from you way before you have that opportunity, and that was life-changing for me,” she says.

Ganis says that in addition to losing her father, she also lost her grandmother and four aunts to Alzheimer’s.  

“Twenty years ago when my dad died, I thought selfishly, ‘OK, I've got years to go and surely they'll have a cure by then.’ Twenty years later, we're no further along and that's not OK. And that's my mission to somehow make a difference in whatever way I can,” she says.

Karen is blogging her experience and collecting donations to help in researching a cure.