Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings, left, joined more than 200 people recently at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center for the unveiling of a new U.S. postal stamp intended to raise funds for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research. The stamp costs 60 cents, which includes the rate of first-class, single-piece postage, plus an amount to fund AD research at the National Institutes of Health. The idea for the stamp came from Kathy Siggins of Mt. Airy, Maryland, whose late husband was treated for AD at Johns Hopkins Bayview. It took Siggins and other stamp advocates 17 years of campaigning to win approval for this “semipostal” stamp, a special type of fundraising stamp to advance causes that the U.S. Postal Service considers to be ‘‘in the national public interest and appropriate.’’ More than 5.3 million Americans age 65 and older are estimated to have AD, which causes memory loss and debilitating symptoms. 

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