• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, Yesterday

News anchor Bill Ritter, a fixture of local TV in New York for 28 years, is courageously facing Alzheimer's disease by sharing his journey with the city he loves.

Last Thursday, Ritter -- who was diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer's in June -- produced, reported and anchored a half-hour special about the disease and the race for a cure on Disney-owned WABC-TV, his long-time TV home.

The show, titled "Living With Alzheimer's," is available to watch in its entirety above.

In the show, Ritter, who is 76, interviewed other New Yorkers coping with their own diagnoses.

They tell Ritter that they are treasuring their time with family and taking their condition one day at a time, just like the anchorman himself.

Like Ritter, they all know the disease is degenerative. They also know that it will lead to a kind of mental oblivion when they will be dependent on others, most likely loved ones whose identities they will struggle to remember, to take care of their everyday needs. In the end, Alzheimer's is a terminal illness.

But they also express hope that improvements in treatments and medications for arresting the progress of the disease are on the way.

The show takes a cautiously optimistic tone in reporting on this subject.

The takeaway is that the study of the disease and the effort to produce new, more effective medications for treating it are accelerating.

Two drugs are already available, both FDA-approved -- lecanemab and donanemab. “Clinical trials show they can modestly slow cognitive decline, though they do not stop or reverse the disease,” says the Dementia Society of America on its website.

In “Living With Alzheimer's,” Ritter interviews researchers and scientists who say new generations of more-effective treatments are on the way, but they will take time to be tested and approved.

Ritter stunned New York on June 12 of this year when he ended a newscast by announcing that he had been diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer's. He said that very newscast would be his last.

He thanked his long-time newsroom colleagues and station management for everything they have done for him.

But Ritter also vowed to stick around to report on the subject of Alzheimer’s disease for as long as the illness will let him.

The first result of this commitment is the half-hour special that premiered last week.