Race aids healing for ex-wife of dementia patient

HONOLULU -- It was "The Pit," the bottom of the humid and desolate dark road leading to the Natural Energy Lab on the Big Island's Kona Coast, and Katherine Nichols had to dig deep to finish the Ironman Triathlon.

The physical and emotional pain of her successful run to the finish line was part of her journey of healing from the physical and emotional strain of being a caregiver for a dementia patient.

"Doing the Ironman this year was very symbolic for me," said the 41-year-old Nichols. "It was gaining the physical, mental and emotional strength to get through this journey. It has been part of my recovery from losing my husband."

Nichols is the former wife of Dr. Edwin Cadman, former dean of the University of Hawaii medical school, who went public with his illness when he resigned the prestigious post shortly after being diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, a type of frontotemporal dementia, in March 2005. next....