4 Guys... 1 banger... 4 days... 1600 miles for charity.

www.ramshacklerally.com

www.alzheimers.org.uk

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page, where you can part with your hard earned cash for an extremely worthy cause.

My 92 year old grandmother has advanced Alzheimers disease and my friends and I want to use this opportunity to raise awareness and funds for the Alzheimer's Society so that it can continue to offer support to those with the illness and also to those who care for them.

I have watched the remorseless decline of my grandmother, who has never looked or acted her age, to the extent that she no longer knows me and my sister (her only grandchildren) and most of the time now does recognise my mother as her daughter. Although she is still in her own home, with carers and sitters going in 3 times a day as well as one of my parents every tea time, she lives in a world of her own with my mother having to make every decision for her. I no longer have any other grandparents alive and it seems terribly cruel that this is how my grandmother should finish her days.

Myself and 3 other friends are partaking in an organised banger rally from the 6th to the 10th of August 2009, starting from Calais passing through Strasbourg, Innsbruck, Bratislava and finally residing in Krakow in Poland, to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society. The route takes us through the rough terrain of small remote villages, the white knuckle mountain passes, and finally (hopefully still in one piece) residing in the Tatra regions of Eastern Europe.

Over 100 types of dementia have been categorised and more people are diagnosed with dementia each year than those diagnosed with cancer. Dementia as a whole is a degenerative disease with the most common symptoms being memory loss, confusion, speech and understanding problems, and often personality changes. Being a degenerative disease, the patients at some point will rely on carers to carry out the everyday things we all take for granted, from making them food, helping them dress and simply spending time to talk and comfort them.

The Alzheimer's Society is the leading care and research charity for people with dementia and their carers. The Society brings together carers, family members, health and social care professionals, researchers, scientists and politicians through shared concern for people with dementia and those who care for them.

The money we raise will go towards support for carers and research into an area of science where there is no cure. The Alzheimer’s society is such a worthy cause, please give as much or as little as you can… every little helps.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now. We know that this is not the ideal time to be asking people to sponsor us but anything that you feel that you can spare; we can assure you will go to a very good cause. It may be too late to help my grandmother but perhaps in time to help yours.