Dementia is an illness that affects the brain, which then causes problems with the persons memory, ability to think as quick, their understanding, their mood , movement and ability to complete every day tasks. It's a slow and painful process where day by day you begin to lose more of your loved ones. You watch them get lost among the clouds of confusion and suffer to remember who they are. 850,000 people in the uk are diagnosed with dementia and the number is going to get higher if we don't continue the research to find a cure.

This year has been an emotional rollercoaster as my Ganker Kennith Arthur Birt was diagnosed with vascular dementia. Being a gankers girl it has been really hard watching him suffer from this awful disease. It has impacted immensely on my Family and we all struggle each day to cope. My nan cared for him for 13 years and when I moved in I watched how the dementia was changing him and it got too much for her to cope. I didn't know what to do, some days he was so confused and disorientated both me and my nan couldn't get any sleep. After weeks of seeing him get worse , I called 999, and he was taken into hospital to be assessed. He was then diagnosed with vascular dementia and has been transferred from hospital to hospital. Now . While we all take in our shifts to visit the hospital , we have to take each day as it comes. Some days we get a smile and a glimpse of who he is , and some days we sit in the room in silence watching him lie in the bed suffocated by the clouds of confusion. We don't know how long it will be until we lose those little precious days we have with him and he forgets us all together , but what we do know is that we love him with all our heart and we will always remember everything he has done for us over the years.

hope and pray that one day they will find a cure so that less family's have to go through what we have. In order to ensure this I am going to try and raise as much money as I can for dementia care uk so it can go towards research be support for those with the disease. In order to raise money I am going to be doing a skydive, so please could everyone try to sponsor me so that I can raise as much money as possible!! Thank you for reading.