I am raising money for the Alzheimer’s Society for the following reasons:

1

Last year I was talking to my grandparents about the Great North Run, and raising money for CICRA. I laughed with my Granny and said I would raise money for her but she was too healthy. At this point Granny said "well, if you would raise money for people who have trouble with their memory that would be nice". I thought about it and being a good granddaughter have signed up for the GNR to raise money for Alzheimer’s Society. I mentioned this to a colleague and was asked "Will she remember that she asked you?" I laughed and said of course. Granny and I had discussed how hard a half marathon is, but when I told her about raising money for Alzheimer’s Societyshe had no idea that she had asked me to do this.

2

My great aunt suffered from dementia and passed away this spring. I can not describe the change in her personality caused by the dementia.

3

David Cameron recently announced a doubling of the budget spent on research into dementia. It is going up from £22.6 million in 2010 to £66 million by 2015. This is to tackle the "national crises" posed by the disease. As a comparison the charity cancer research uk spent £332 million in 2010 on cancer research.

I have asked you all before to be generous but this time it is personal so I am probably going to ask twice as hard. PLEASE donate either because the thought of me in pain amuses you, you would like to support me, or you would just like to donate to Alzheimer's Society.

I have chosen a photo of last year's event to show how much I did not enjoy the race, the pain was high and the training not fun. This is my way of saying please sponsor me and donate to this amazing charity. I am only doing this because my granny asked me to, believe me!