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  • 6 weeks ago
“I recently found out I have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease,” he reveals to PEOPLE in an exclusive, candid account of how he is coming to terms with the diagnosis that he received in August 2025.

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Transcript
00:00It started as I was standing on the tip of a wing, watching this captain walk up and down
00:07the aisles of an airplane, make sure everybody had gotten off. I can say this about Sully.
00:13In all of this, he's always had time for the passengers. And I think he realized that we'd
00:20all gone through a life-changing event together, and that we shared that special moment, and that
00:28was something that he was not going to let the rest of his things going on in his life interfere
00:32with.
00:33I mean, it was the scariest thing that ever happened to me. And I tell everybody that, you
00:39know, you get to a point where it's a feeling beyond fear. You come to a decision that you're
00:46going to die. And I do believe that most people on the plane felt like that we were not going
00:51to get
00:51out of that alive that day. This man has had a significant impact on my life over the last
00:57not only my life, but a lot of people's lives over the past couple of decades. And now he's
01:04having to face this challenge. My dad also had Alzheimer's. And so I kind of understand some of
01:10the things that he's going through. They wanted to get it out there so that it could also help
01:17people that are in the same situation. He would just be another voice that would tell people in that
01:26situation. You don't have to live in silence with it. You can certainly talk about it.
01:29I was talking with one of the other passengers one day, and I just said, you know, this is really
01:35a
01:36defining moment in our life, but this can't be the defining moment in our life. And I said,
01:42that's reserved for Sully. And, you know, we talked a little bit about it. And then maybe a month or
01:49so
01:49later, I saw Sully, and I was repeating that story to him. And he pushed back, and he said,
01:55no, no, no, Clay. This is not the defining moment in my life. I have a lot more that I
02:01want to
02:01accomplish. And I think this gives him the opportunity to accomplish even more than what
02:07he had anticipated. This is his way of giving back and moving forward.
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