ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. \u2013 An 81-year-old woman finished a nearly 3,000-mile walk across the United States on Friday, completing a journey from San Diego to St. Augustine that supporters called historic.<\/p>\n
Dr. Judy Benjamin, an Alzheimer\u2019s patient and survivor, completed roughly 2,800 miles on foot and was greeted by friends and family as she crossed the finish line.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never for a moment thought I wouldn\u2019t make it,\u201d Benjamin said.<\/p>\n
At 81 years old, Dr. Judy Benjamin is a true fighter. She\u2019s an Alzheimer\u2019s survivor who\u00a0completed an incredible journey\u2014walking nearly 3,000 miles across the United States. (Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
Thirteen years after her diagnosis, Benjamin said she had at times lost hope, especially after watching her mother battle Alzheimer\u2019s for 20 years. But she said she \u201cchanged everything\u201d \u2014 her diet, exercise routine and medical care \u2014 after consulting specialists.<\/p>\n
\u201cI developed an incredible peace about my life, acceptance about myself and the people in it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Benjamin was treated by Dr. Dale Bredesen of the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Santa Monica, who initially urged caution when he heard her plan for a cross-country walk. <\/p>\n
\u201cJudy, you\u2019re 80 years old now. You were first treated when you were 67, you\u2019ve done great for 13 years, but why don\u2019t you just relax a little,\u201d he recalled telling her.<\/p>\n
At 81 years old, Dr. Judy Benjamin is a true fighter. She\u2019s an Alzheimer\u2019s survivor who\u00a0completed an incredible journey\u2014walking nearly 3,000 miles across the United States. (Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
Bredesen, who came to St. Augustine to witness her finish, said he was impressed by her accomplishment and its broader implications. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really impressed with what she\u2019s done, and she\u2019s bringing hope to a lot of people. She\u2019s showing people that there is something to be done about cognitive decline, and please don\u2019t wait,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Benjamin began the trek with her toes in the Pacific and ended it by dipping them into the Atlantic, a symbolic completion of her west-to-east journey. Along the way, family and friends cheered her on.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. \u2013 An 81-year-old woman finished a nearly 3,000-mile walk across the United States on Friday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[11355,74,76,75,34229],"class_list":{"0":"post-54768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-alzheimers","9":"tag-san-diego","10":"tag-san-diego-headlines","11":"tag-san-diego-news","12":"tag-st-augustine"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}