Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I always like a challenge and over the last 2-3 years especially, one of the things I have focused on is my health and well-being.  I had put on too much weight and my general health was not the greatest.  However, I knew that by eating right and exercising regularly I could change my life for the better.  My life was in my hands, unlike sadly people affected by Alzheimers.  This awful disease changes people's lives forever and it's completely out of their hands.  Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, affecting around 500k people in the UK. It can include loss of memory, mood changes, and problems with communication and reasoning.  It can be devastating for the sufferer as well as their family and friends.  Alzheimers is a progressive disease, which means that gradually, over time, more parts of the brain are damaged. As this happens, the symptoms become more severe.

 

The Alzheimers Society is the chosen charity of Thales and so come the end of May I will complete the Thales to Paris cycle challenge over 3 days completing in total around 300 miles.  The ride starts from the Thales Head Office in Crawley and finishes under the famous Eiffel Tower. Whilst I can do things to improve my life this gives me a wonderful opportunity to help raise awareness of Alzheimers and its’ sufferers and raise money to enable them to have a better life for themselves. Each member of the Thales team has been tasked with raising £1300 in total each and £600 by mid March. 

 

Often when undertaking these events you are asked if it has affected your family, or whether you are riding in memory of someone.  I am lucky in the fact that this disease has not affected my family unlike Cancer.  However, I have good friends who it has affected, so I hope they will consider my ride as helping with the memory of their loved ones.  For me it's a great opportunity to do something personally challenging whilst raising much needed money for this charity.  I hope all of you will support me in this.

 

Please donate all you can to help me reach my target. To give you an idea of what that money means, £1600 could give someone affected by dementia an hour of one-to-one support every week for a whole year from an experienced dementia support worker. Likewise, £650 could pay for a brain scan for a participant in a study working to improve diagnosis of different types of dementia. So, please, dig deep in your pockets and help me make a real difference to people's lives!

 

As well as this page I will also be looking to organise events and other such activities to try and raise even more incuding a golf day, quiz night and raffles.  I will keep you up to date on all of these as time goes by.  So don't delay...donate now.

 

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.  If you not comfortable donating online then please contact me at damianjcarter@googlemail.com and I will contact you to organise an offline donation.