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>> Stephanie Prechter: He had such a dynamic presence and such a --
I mean the amount of compassion and the amount of just fire, and passion, and sacrifice, and --
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>> Dr. McInnis: It's an illness like heart disease.
It's an illness that is affected -- that affects the biology.
It's expressed to the brain and the individual themselves is truly a victim of their illness.
>> Stephanie Prechter: We're losing a lot of people as young as, you know 13.
It's an epidemic.
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>> Dr. Greden: Wally Prechter is a force.
Her pressure to do this and to stay the course has enabled everybody else to buy
into the overall mission, to do it for the right reasons.
>> Wally Prechter: I was pushing forward to figure out what is this illness all about,
and why did we lose him, and why did it change my daughter's life.
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>> Stephanie Prechter: So my name is Stephanie Prechter and I do -- I have bipolar.
>> Wally Prechter: September 2001 and my daughter,
three months after the death of her dad.
>> Stephanie Prechter: At 18, I had my first depressive episode.
>> Wally Prechter: She had a mania episode, which we had --
we did not know she was having bipolar.
She was bipolar.
We did not know that until that happened.
>> Stephanie Prechter: My mind was completely disorganized.
I was in this space of complete darkness.
>> Wally Prechter: I went to visit her and I saw a completely different person in front of me,
and I became aware of this incredibly strong illness.
It's the pain that pushed me further to do something about it
and I just wanted other people not to have to go through that.
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>> Stephanie Prechter: She is someone that --
she's been such a rock through this whole experience and to have --
and then to support this type of research.
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>> Dr. Greden: It has amazed me to watch Wally Prechter become almost a source for information
for an entire region but maybe even the nation.
And her dedication to the cause of the Prechter Fund and the longitudinal study
of the genetic repository and registry have really made it possible for us to look ahead
and to say these breakthroughs are going to come.
>> Wally Prechter: We have very smart people working on this and I do believe
that we have good technology that will get even better yet.
>> Stephanie Prechter: Well, I first learned about Dr. O'Shea's work through my mom.
>> Wally Prechter: Because we can actually see people's neurons in front of us,
something that we had never been able to do before.
>> Stephanie Prechter: And she came to me and she said Stephanie,
they can tell, they can tell the difference.
It feels so powerful to -- to be able to -- to identify on I guess on a physiological level
that something is -- is different.
>> Wally Prechter: My name is Wally Prechter.
I'm the founder of the Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Fund
at the University of Michigan Depression Center.
And I think if you can, if you truly believe in something, you owe it to yourself to help,
and to give, and to make a difference because ultimately that is all we leave behind.
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