Jinan man designs clothing to aid lost Alzheimer's patients

JINAN — Fan Weidong's life became more difficult after his father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease about six years ago.

"My father began asking the same questions repeatedly. He became timid, short-tempered and stubborn," said Fan, recalling the changes in his father before the diagnosis. "His memory was failing, so he couldn't remember our names, and he got lost several times."

Fan, a police officer from Jiyang district in Jinan, Shandong province, sought treatment for his father, but to no avail. He also witnessed other families going through similar difficulties, including losing track of the whereabouts of their elderly relatives.

"I wanted to do something to make them feel more secure and at ease," said Fan, 53.

Fan has since designed various types of clothing that help people find their lost loved ones. More than 2,000 of these garments, which include down jackets and T-shirts, have been distributed free of charge across the country to vulnerable people such as Alzheimer's patients.

"The clothes have a QR code containing their owner's basic information and their emergency contact details," he said. "Moreover, the clothes have reflective strips on the back, resembling those on traffic police uniforms, to ensure the safety of elderly people traveling at night.

"The logo, 'AD 9-21', is also imprinted on the back of the clothes, with AD standing for Alzheimer's disease and 9-21 referring to Sept 21, which coincides with World Alzheimer's Day," he added.

Alzheimer's is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys the memory, cognitive capability and the ability to carry out simple tasks. Medical experts say that there is currently no cure for the disease.

In China, statistics show that about 10 million people age 60 and above have Alzheimer's. Earlier this year, health authorities in China launched a nationwide campaign to run from this year to 2025 to promote the prevention and treatment of the illness.

Inspired by experience

Life has not been easy for Fan in recent years. In 2015, three years before the Alzheimer's diagnosis was made, his father was diagnosed with stomach cancer.

To help his father fight Alzheimer's, Fan sought medicines for him in an effort to delay the progression of his disease, but the effect was limited.

On New Year's Day in 2019, his father failed to return home after taking a walk. Fan worked with family and friends to search for him, their hearts filled with anxiety. After more than an hour, there was still no news of his whereabouts.

At around 3 pm that day, Fan received a call from a police station, informing him that his father had been found. Fan rushed to the station, where he found his father had sustained bruises and bleeding on his face after falling due to fatigue and difficulties with walking. Fan's face was wet with tears.

That experience inspired him to design and manufacture "anti-lost clothes" for his father and others with Alzheimer's.

Manufacturing such clothes was no easy task.

To better understand the real needs of Alzheimer's patients and collect firsthand information, he examined cases of local elderly people getting lost and visited more than 100 families with members who have the disease.

As a newbie in clothes design, he had no idea how difficult it would be.

"When I began designing such clothes, I found that it was not as simple as I had imagined, and I encountered many difficulties: from the style of the clothing to the texture of the fabric; from the function of the clothing to the feeling of wearing them; and from contacting the factory to the tailoring," he said.

Determined to overcome these troubles, he searched the internet and read books about clothing design during his spare time.

Inspired by traffic police uniforms, he placed similar reflective strips on his garments and installed locators from electric tricycles in them. He later replaced these with small tracking devices, allowing people to use their mobile phones to find lost family members.

To further ensure the comfort of the clothing and the accuracy of the tracking devices, Fan sought the help of multiple companies from outside Shandong specializing in clothing design and the manufacture of tracking chips.

Garnering attention

As more people learned about Fan's brand, some reached out to him and expressed their need for such clothing, and he offered to send them some free of charge. During his spare time, he kept in touch with the relatives of the recipients on the popular messaging app WeChat.

Some gave him feedback, which he used to improve the clothing. Others gave him words of encouragement.

Ninety-year-old Zhang Shizhen, an Alzheimer's patient in Jinan, is among those who have received clothes from Fan.

Every time she prepares to go out, her children repeatedly urge her to put them on.

Zhang's son Huo Quansheng recalls an episode on New Year's Day in 2021, when his mother got lost while heading home from a walk.

"Fortunately, some passersby scanned the QR code on her clothes and called me, so we immediately rushed over to where she was," Huo said. "Although my mother's memory is failing, she cheers up every time she sees Fan."

Fan has designed four generations of the clothing and has given away more than 2,000 free garments to people in over 20 provinces and cities in China, including the provinces of Shanxi and Henan. He has invested over 400,000 yuan ($55,762) in the effort.

Moreover, through the years, his endeavor has mushroomed into a public campaign with over 30 volunteers who have helped him with clothing production and patent filing. Together with them, Fan has also established a public service center.

Upon hearing of their deeds, the public security bureau of Jinan and the civil affairs bureau of Jiyang have offered them some financial support.

Fan plans to coordinate with at least seven communities to dispense about 1,000 items of anti-lost clothing this year.

"I hope more people in need will get the clothes, and more people will take care of the disadvantaged groups together," he said.

Xinhua