Story - Tom Alexander

My sister-in-law Paige and I have decided to set ourselves the difficult challenge of running the Brighton Marathon 2018 and completing the 26.2 mile run.  It is both meaningful and personal to us both as we will be running it in memory of my Grandfather Chris whilst raising money for the Alzheimer's society.

In January 2015, after having being diagnosed 5 years previously with Alzheimer's, I lost the only Grandfather I ever knew to this disease. He had been a massive part of my childhood and was a role model to both myself and my older brother Simon. We had looked up to him for the 20 years we were blessed to have known him.

My Grandad was an absolute gentleman and family man, with a great sense of humour - he was always cracking jokes and always had people laughing. He was handsome, charming, caring as well as completely selfless. He played sports regularly as a younger man and lived an active healthy life, even as a pensioner.

After the families' suspicions grew with the changes in Grandad's behaviour and short-term memory loss he was tested and diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Our families' took it as well as could be expected and we thought we were prepared for the battle ahead.

Over the next few years we gradually lost the Grandad we knew,  this awful disease robbing us of the man we loved. His fabulous personality slowly diminished and although we saw him every day, it was heart-breaking watching him decline. From a man who used to ride his bicycle every day and play football with my brother and me, he ended up unable to do even the most basic of tasks. It became a 24 hour, 7 day a week, 365 days a year responsibility for my Nan. It became isolating for her as my Grandad started to become paranoid and suspicious, apparently a typical Alzheimer's sufferer trait.

After 4 and a 1/2 years of constant 24/7 care with no respite my Nan and the family were advised that a care home would be a better option and safer for my Grandad who by now had become too confused and impossible to care for.

The disease made it impossible for our Grandad to understand why he was in hospital.  He knew who we were; he never forgot us or even once forgot our names.  He just wanted to come home.  He died on 15^thJanuary 2015 and we still miss him every day. 

I and millions of others would like to see this cruel disease eradicated so Paige and I are running the Brighton Marathon in memory of my Grandad as a tribute to him and to raise much needed funds for the Alzheimer’s Society.

There is no cure for Alzheimer's disease, only medication which is available that can help relieve some of the symptoms and slow down the progression of the condition in some individuals. Alzheimer's disease is most common in people over the age of 65, and affects slightly more women than men. The risk of Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia increases with age, affecting an estimated 1 in 14 people over the age of 65 and 1 in every 6 people over the age of 80.

Many people believe that Alzheimer's disease - the most common type of dementia is just a loss of memory, dementia is so much more and causes confusion, disorientation and can cause the individual to get lost in familiar places. Causes great difficulty when planning or making decisions, problems with speech and language, problems with moving around without assistance or performing self-care tasks.

Other signs and symptoms are the changes in the individual which affect not only the person but also the friends, family and loved ones they may be fortunate enough to be surrounded and supported by is the change in personality, they may become aggressive, demanding and very suspicious. They can suffer from hallucinations and see and hear things that are not there, as well as delusional by believing things that are not true. Anxiety and low, depressive moods are also very common.

Thank you for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page and by donating you are supporting the Alzheimer's society and their vision of a world without dementia.

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