Playing 4Mom: UW’s Bishop tries to raise awareness about Alzheimer’s

SEATTLE — Someday the phrase written in black marker on the inside of Braden Bishop’s left arm will be permanent.

The numbers and letters spelling out ‘4MOM’ on his forearm and shoes will be a fixture in all Bishop — a junior center fielder at Washington — tries to accomplish. It’ll be a prominent piece of his life when he’s chasing down fly balls, or when he’s nowhere near a baseball field trying to raise awareness about Alzheimer’s.

That one number and three letters became a calling for Bishop last September when after months of noticing changes in his mom and subsequent testing, Suzy Bishop was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at age 54. She is one of about 200,000 — or 5 percent of the entire Alzheimer’s patient population — to be diagnosed with early onset of the disease.

Bishop, who is from San Carlos, Calif., is regarded as one of the top draft prospects in the Pac-12 Conference with a pro career on the horizon. But just as much of a priority now is raising awareness about a disease that changed the lives of the Bishop family.

“As they were explaining it and what the doctor had said and what the future would hold, the whole time I kept thinking, ‘What if my mom doesn’t remember who I am in three years? What if I do get the opportunity one day to make a big league debut and my mom is not going to remember that? All these things are running through my head,” Bishop said.

“I think more than anything the overriding thought or theme for me was: ‘How could I make a difference? How could I make this a positive to support her but also one day not have somebody in my shoes have their mom struggle the way I see mine struggle?”’

Bishop’s plans to start a charitable foundation won’t get completely started until after his college career ends, but he’s already formulating ideas, hoping to use his status to eventually help others. Trying to raise awareness was how Bishop decided to cope with his mom’s diagnosis and after some initial hesitation, she supported letting him share their story.

“I said, ‘Hey, look, that’s a pretty special thing that you want to do. I think you should ask your mom and see if that’s something that she wants,”’ said Braden’s dad, Randy Bishop. “Shortly thereafter he called her and explained everything to her and Suzy, I think it was at that moment she realized, look, we need to support our son.”

“He’s taken it and handled it very well. He’s embraced it and it’s his drive right now to not only succeed on the field but to make sure the Alzheimer’s awareness is out there when he’s off the field.”

Rachel Turner of the Alzheimer’s Association of Western Washington said stories like Bishop’s are sometimes the most important for sharing.

“It’s such a beautiful thing to have these young people who have so much energy and passion for the cause be involved and they are some of our most successful fundraisers because they have powerful stories,” Turner said.

After his mom’s diagnosis, Bishop’s education became more than the classwork for his law, society and justice major. When Bishop learned only 5 percent of all Alzheimer’s cases impact those younger than 60, he realized how much of a fluke it was for his mom to be stricken.

Suzy Bishop was a top collegiate distance runner at UCLA in the early 1980s. She ran all the major marathons and competed in the 1984 U.S. Olympic trials in the event. When the competitive running ended, Bishop turned her career to Hollywood. Not on the screen, but as a producer. She was a wiz with numbers and planning and organization, in her professional and personal life.

It’s those skills the disease is attacking. The simplest tasks are challenging.

“She can’t write a check because she can’t figure out what lines are for what. When she signs her name she has issues signing her name. It’s tough to keep a calendar,” Randy Bishop said. “She can’t keep too many things at one time.”

With the help of Washington’s baseball staff and compliance office, Bishop was able to be part of a powerlifting fundraiser at a local gym that raised $7,000. Baseball is the priority until the end of the season, but there will be more fundraisers — maybe a charity softball game — and eventually making “4MOM” an everlasting fixture.

“I guess the biggest thing for me was how can I make people live their lives so one day they don’t regret not being able to take advantage of the time they have with their mom or dad or brother or whoever it may be,” Bishop said. “I’m just hoping the story that I can tell will motivate somebody and just so somebody down the road doesn’t have to go through what I’m going through.”