January is Alzheimer's Awareness Month and this year, the campaign is focusing its message on women.

Females make up a remarkable 72 per cent of Canadians living with the disease.

One of the biggest risk factors for developing Alzheimer’s is age and women have a longer life expectancy than men. With that in mind, women are being urged to learn the warning signs.

Linda Bird is the director of programs and services at the Alzheimer Society of Nova Scotia. She says most people associate Alzheimer's with memory loss, but there are other things to watch for.

“Other warning signs include changes in personality, changes in judgment and reasoning, losing interest in hobbies, problems with language,” says Bird.

Difficulty performing familiar tasks, disorientation in time and space, problems with abstract thinking, misplacing things, and changes in mood and behaviour should also raise a red flag.

“If someone is concerned about any of the ten warning signs, they should really contact their doctor and asked to be assessed,” says Bird.

Four years ago, Faye Forbes had lost interest in the things she once enjoyed. As she describes it, she just wasn’t herself.

“I was very forgetful, couldn't accomplish everyday tasks. Money was like water going through my fingers,” says Forbes.

At the age of 58, her communication skills and cognitive awareness started to slide.

“I sort of cocooned myself away from people,” says Forbes. “I didn't become involved in things anymore and treated it as depression for quite a while.”

Her daughters also noticed a change in their once energetic and involved mother.

“It was really difficult to see her be so flat and apathetic about things, whereas normally she would have so much joy and zest. That was one of the really big symptoms we had noticed pre-diagnosis,” says Faye’s daughter Lori.

The diagnosis was Alzheimer's disease and it came as a shock to the family.

“I think I had this pre-conceived notion you had to be old and mom was far from being old,” says Faye’s daughter Jennifer.

Forbes and her daughters say they didn't know many of the signs of Alzheimer's before her diagnosis, but in retrospect the symptoms made sense.

“When we started to think about everything I had been going through, the puzzle came together, and the whole picture was there,” says Forbes.

Though Forbes still has a lot of independence, her daughters do act as her main caregivers.