When FTD Changes Everything, Finding Strength, Purpose, and Community with Nanci Anderson & Lindsay Early

Nicole Will
Aug 27
4 min read

Best caregiver podcast caregiver support dementia alzheimers

When FTD Changes Everything, Finding Strength, Purpose, and Community with Nanci Anderson & Lindsay Early, Co-Founders of Gary’s FUB Team, AFTD Ambassadors, and Family Caregiver Advocates

Have you ever found yourself in a season of life where all the answers you needed seemed just out of reach? The slow unraveling of a loved one’s personality, the baffling symptoms that don’t line up neatly with a doctor’s chart, and the ache of feeling unseen in the middle of it all. For many families, that’s the reality of finding a diagnosis and trying to find answers when a change in health changes everything. That was the road to Gary Anderson’s diagnosis of Frontotemporal Dementia, or FTD.

Today, I’m joined by two remarkable women, Nanci Anderson and her daughter, Lindsay Early. Nanci spent decades in executive leadership before her world shifted in 2016, when her husband, Gary, was diagnosed with FTD. She has since become a tireless advocate, fundraiser, and support group leader for families facing the same journey. Lindsay, a marketing executive and mom of two, carries her dad’s story forward through advocacy and by co-founding Gary’s FUB Team with her family. Together, they’ve turned heartbreak into hope, raising tens of thousands of dollars for the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD) and creating a community of support for others walking this difficult path.

In our conversation, we’ll walk through the long, winding road to Gary’s diagnosis, the love and struggle of living with FTD, and the resilience it took to find a “new normal.” Nanci and Lindsay open up about anticipatory grief, the moments that changed them, and the moments that still bring peace.

We’ll talk about how they chose to honor Gary by taking action and building Gary’s FUB Team, partnering with AFTD, and raising awareness so other families don’t have to walk this road alone. Their story is about caregiving; it’s about what love leaves behind, and how purpose can grow from even the darkest chapters.

And here’s where you can step in. Gary’s FUB Team is hosting their annual fundraising event, September 22nd, to benefit AFTD. This is an evening filled with community, storytelling, and hope. Every ticket, every donation, every act of support moves us closer to better care, greater awareness, and the possibility of ending FTD.

If you’d like to attend, contribute, or simply stand alongside families like Nanci, Lindsay and Emily’s, you can visit garysfubteam.simpletix.com. Whether you show up in person or from afar, your support matters more than you know!

Listen to our episode HERE.

Connect with Gary's FUB Team on Instagram and Facebook @garysfubteam

To learn more about The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration visit https://www.theaftd.org/

Thank you to our Sponsor

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About Our Guests

Nanci Anderson: Realtor and Minnesota/Western Wisconsin Ambassador for the AFTD + Ambassador for the AFTD.

Before retiring in 2022, Nanci’s 40-year career was in executive leadership with technology companies. After the FTD diagnosis of her late husband, Gary in 2016, she had to shift her priority to caregiving and advocating for those in the FTD community. Nanci fuels her passion for dementia advocacy by being active with AFTD (theAFTD.org) as a volunteer since 2017. Through the years, she has represented AFTD at local events around the Twin Cities, such as Meeting of the Minds and University of Minnesota’s Rare Disease Day. She also facilitated local caregiver support groups. She has raised funds to support AFTD’s mission through the #FTDHotShotChallenge, With Love campaign, and Food for Thought fundraisers. In 2018, Nanci and her daughters co-founded a Minnesota non-profit, Gary’s FUB Team, as a vehicle to continue to drive awareness and raise funds to support AFTD. Although her husband passed in 2019, her passion for FTD education, awareness, and caregiver support continues. She has been an AFTD Ambassador representing Minnesota and Western Wisconsin since 2023.

Lindsay Early: Marketing Executive and Co-Founder Gary’s FUB Team + Volunteer for the AFTD.

Lindsay is a marketing & advertising leader in Minnesota and very active in her community while staying busy with her 2 children ages 13 and 8. In 2017, in order to take more action after her father was diagnosed with FTD, Lindsay started volunteering for the AFTD (theAFTD.org) through advocacy and fundraising, driven by the hope that one day we can #endFTD. As Co-founder of a Minnesota nonprofit, Gary’s FUB Team, we’re on a mission to raise awareness and provide vital education about Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) in our community. In partnership with theAFTD.org, we’ve worked with incredible local sponsors and a generous community to host an annual fundraiser event for AFTD that over the past six years, has raised nearly $60,000.

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We are not medical professionals and are not providing any medical advice. If you have any medical questions, we recommend that you talk with a medical professional of your choice. willGather has taken care in selecting its speakers but the opinions of our speakers are theirs alone. Thank you for your continued interest in our podcasts.