Discovering he had early-onset Alzheimer's disease changed Sean Terwilliger's life, but not in the way you might expect.

"Getting diagnosed with Alzheimer's is the best thing that ever happened to me," Sean said. "Before my diagnosis, I worked. I didn't love my job, but I did it. I had a great life - I had a family, I traveled the world, but I never woke up every day with a mission like I do now."

Sean's mission is to help others navigating the world of Alzheimer's, providing resources and offering hope.

He will speak about his experience when he participates in "The Impact of Alzheimer's and Dementia in Our Community." The free program is open to the public and will be held at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 27, in Deike Auditorium in the Freemasons Cultural Center/Visitors Center of Masonic Village, 1 Masonic Drive, Elizabethtown. No registration is required to attend.

Sean resides in Massachusetts, but his father, Bob, and his stepmother, Joan, live at Masonic Village.

After he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in June of 2024 at age 60, Sean began learning everything he could about the disease. A retired IT expert, he shifted his focus to finding a way to live through the disease, which has no cure.

He began blogging about his experience at http://www.alzblog.net, sharing what he was going through, new research and more. He also started speaking about Alzheimer's at public events and became involved with the Alzheimer's Association chapter near where he lives.

One day, his father asked him to come and speak at Masonic Village, so Sean connected with the Lancaster chapter of the Alzheimer's Association and made the arrangements.

At the program, Sean will be joined by George Kohlweiler, a Masonic Village resident who heads up the community's Walk to End Alzheimer's team, as well as representatives from the Alzheimer's Association, who will provide a more technical presentation on the disease.

Sean will discuss how his life changed after his diagnosis, how important it is to be an advocate for one's health and how he maintains a positive attitude in the face of the disease.

In 2018, Sean had a mini stroke, after which doctors discovered a hole in his heart. For the next few years, every time he noticed slow reactions, lost words or the inability to remember something, he attributed it to the stroke.

Still, Sean and his wife, Wendy Bradley-Terwilliger, thought something else might be going on.

"It took me six years and seeing doctors in three states to finally get a referral to a neurologist," Sean said, adding that the testing resulted in his Alzheimer's diagnosis.

"I never thought my diagnosis was going to be anything but long-term effects of the stroke," he recalled. "My goal wasn't to discover I had Alzheimer's, but it turns out that's what happened."

Now treating the disease with infusions every two weeks, Sean remains hopeful in the medication's ability to slow the progression of the disease.

And while he's optimistic now, he wasn't initially.

"When I was first diagnosed, I crawled into a hole that I never thought I could come out of," he said. "Many people do that. Many people stay there. I chose to write my way out of that hole, and it transformed my life."

In addition to his blog, Sean is writing a book, tentatively titled "Alz Fired Up: On the Unstoppable Nature of Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease and One Man's Quest to Outpace It."

"I want a quantification of 'How much worse am I getting? How much life do I have left?' And there's no way to know that," Sean said. "We know so little about the workings of the brain, but I have learned so much in the last year and a half. I spend all my time on this; it's my life now."

He focuses on brainwork to strengthen his brain, exercise and healthy eating, but he also remembers to pause and enjoy life.

"I want people to know how important it is when people get diagnosed that they become active in staying hopeful," he said. "You have time to still live, laugh and love."

He hopes people who attend the program at Masonic Village will discover the processes for diagnosing the disease, medication options, what prognosis looks like in the ever-evolving process of combatting the disease and guidelines for self-care.

"People are going to hear the story of someone who decided he wasn't going to sit back and let the disease take him," Sean said. "I have been blessed in so many ways, and when I lose it all, I will have no regrets."