Ms. Leeza Gibbons, 47, is a busy lady. The fetching former ET and Extra emcee is still dishing Hollywood on her national syndicated radio program. She also hosts Lifetime's handy-tips-for-women-in-peril series What Should You Do? (Saturdays at 11 pm/ET). Not only that, she hawks her own beauty line, Sheer Cover, in infomercials. However, Leeza's main passion these days is charity work, specifically on behalf of battling Alzheimer's disease, which runs in her family. Here, she shares with TV Guide Online her very personal and poignant story.

TV Guide Online: What's your personal connection to Alzheimer's?
Leeza Gibbons: When my grandmother died, my mother had just been diagnosed with the same disease. At that funeral, it was so powerful for me to see my mother looking at the face of her mother — knowing that that was her own future. And I'm looking at my mom, thinking, "I've got a daughter and two sons. I don't want them to have this scene in their lives." So I asked my mother if I could talk about her diagnosis to empower people and help them feel less alone. There's so much shame and stigma around this disease because it's your mind. My mom very bravely said to me, "Honey, you're a storyteller. Do it."

TVGO: So you started your own organization.
Leeza: It's called Leeza's Place. We provide free psycho-social support services. We have care advocates, who act sort of like air-traffic controllers, to help victims of Alzheimer's disease and their caregivers to access all kinds of resources. We also do something cool called Memory Television. Families can build a set where they're surrounded by mementos. Then, they have their own "talk show" where they discuss important memories or things they've never discussed before. The camera is so non-judgmental, people feel like they can say anything! We've had amazing things happen, like a kid coming out to his parents. It's great.

TVGO: Wow. It's good to get a family's different generations talking while they're able.
Leeza: Yes. Our society doesn't value aging. We're afraid of it. We dispose of our elderly, rather than recognize their wisdom and beauty. By the way, we don't have "Alzheimer's" in the name of Leeza's Place for a specific reason. We want people to find it easy to bring in their seniors to approach this frightening subject in safe settings.

TVGO: You're also writing a book, right?
Leeza: It's called Scrapbooking Traditions. Because we lose a little bit of my mom every day, I have a near-obsession with preserving memories and passing down customs. I also started this scrapbooking-materials line called Leeza's Legacies, which hits stores this summer. It's for women like me, who are not craft mavens, but want to save things. Alzheimer's comes in and rewrites your life story, so it's important to record the authentic story for posterity.

To learn more about Leeza's Place, visit their website.