For almost 60 years, Janice and Bernie Fitzpatrick were a team.
They built a life together, raised seven children, lived across Australia and overseas, and spent countless hours side by side on bicycles.
Even when the dementia that Bernie was diagnosed with in May 2018 began to take pieces of his memory away, a bike remained one of the things that could still bring him joy.
He could forget where he was. He could briefly forget the people around him, but he could still pedal.
Bernie died in September 2024 at 81.
The Figtree man was one of the 424,511 people living with dementia in Australia in 2024.
That year, dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, was the second leading cause of death in the country.
This is something Janice is now riding hard to stop.
Janice and Bernie married in 1967 after meeting as young students at Wagga Wagga Teachers College in NSW in 1964.
The couple eventually settled in Wollongong.
Janice described their relationship as a "team" working through the ups and downs of family life together.
"But I suppose at the bottom of [our relationship] there always was love, that was the bottom line."
It was that love that drove Janice to join a dementia carers group after being "in denial" about the reality of Bernie's diagnosis.
She remembers clearly two occasions in 2018 when Bernie experienced memory issues before his diagnosis.
The retired University of Wollongong lecturer had two separate mental lapses while giving work to his students during guest lectures.
And after seeing what Alzheimer's had done to his father, Janice said Bernie was terrified to see a doctor.
"I had no idea of the challenges," she said.
"[I was] slightly in denial, but also a bit worried about what was in front of me."
Bernie gradually lost access to his ability to read and other abilities that had been central to who he was.
Being an English teacher and almost perfect speller, he was aware when his abilities began to change.
"I felt a sense of loss for him, seeing it happen to him," Janice said.
As Bernie deteriorated, he would at times forget his children or no longer recognise Janice.
When they would sit around the coffee table or next to each other on the couch, he would repeatedly ask where she was.
"I'm right here," she would say.
The memory episode could last for up to an hour before he would recognise her again, almost as though "a light switched on and off in the brain".
The first time Janice and Bernie experienced these episodes was very emotional.
"I said, 'Honey, just give me a hug, let's have a hug," she said.
For Janice, one of the most important sources of support became the Corrimal Dementia Carers Group.
"What I came to realise was that I wasn't on my own," she said.
"Other people were having similar problems [such as] behaviour changes in their spouse.
"And it wasn't always a husband, it could be a parent."
As part of her journey through grief, Janice realised that more needed to be done to understand the disease.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimates that in 40 years 1,064,344 people will be living with dementia.
In 2026, it is believed that 459,231 live with the disease.
"We can't afford to sit and be complacent and sit down and do nothing about this problem," Janice said.
So began a fundraising plan "from nothing" that saw the 81-year-old cycle 40 kilometres around Lake Burley Griffin on September 18.
"There's a two-pronged reason why I did this ride," she said.
"To honour Bernie, but also hopefully help future generations get to the bottom of dementia."
It was also a way to connect with her lost love, who even as his symptoms of dementia progressed, still loved cycling.
Bernie rode up until 11 months before his death.
"What was crazy is that he was still able to ride his bike, even though he was super forgetful," his son Julian Fitzpatrick said, who travelled from Ballarat to Canberra to support his mother's efforts.
Eventually, Bernie could pedal without knowing where he was.
"His memory and everything sort of decayed to the point where he'd pedal and he didn't know where he was, but he was still enjoying it," Julian said.
But cycling also became cause for concern about Bernie's safety, his Friday rides with Janice soon moved from the road the path, and eventually stopped altogether.
After Bernie retired in the 2000s, the couple became "more serious" about cycling.
They would take part in long-distance charity rides together on a tandem bike, with Bernie riding at the front.
They rode from Sydney to Wollongong and Sydney to Surfers Paradise, with some of their trips stretching for eight or nine days, and covering up to 1000 kilometres.
"Bike riding has been in our family for as long as I can remember and before that," Julian said.
For Bernie's son Julian, it was hard watching his father's decline.
He said he often took for granted the lessons his parents taught him about being honest and hardworking and "doing the right thing by people".
"I thought every family had that, and it's not until you have conversations with other people later in life, you realise that not everyone had," he said.
Watching Bernie suffer at the hands of dementia, Julian said it was sad watching a pillar of strength in his life forget his children.
"Dad was really going downhill with his dementia, so he was becoming more like reverting to a child or a baby," he said.
"Which was really sad, really difficult for mum to take, and all of us to take.
"And then you know, the physical shaking."
Julian travelled from Ballarat to support his mother's fundraiser.
His nephew joined him and was amazed by his grandmother's physical fitness and "mental grit".
"I was really impressed on mum's efforts that she sort of created this from nothing," Julian said.
To donate visit ride-out-dementia.raiselysite.com/
