In March 2014 I will be performing a charity Tandem SkyDive in memory of my Grandmother, Joyce Probert. this is a huge personal challenge for me as I suffer with a great fear of heights, so jumping out of a moving plane at about 12,500ft and plummeting to the ground at a speed of 115mph is about the most terrifying challenge I could set myself. This is why I think this would be a worthy challenge that would raise funding for this incredible charity. 

For four years I helped care for my Grandmother who suffered with Alzheimers and Dimensia. Alzheimers is a slow acting disease that can take months, sometimes even years to diagnose and can impair every day life. At first the changes were subtle and we could blame the changes in her memory and personality on just simple old age, but as months went by there was obvously something wrong and we needed a definitive explanation. In the summer of 2007 My grandmother, Joyce Probert, was diagnosed with Alzheimers and Dimentia. As we had never seen this disease take someones mind before, me and my family had no idea what was coming.

Alzheimers and Dimentia affects about 10%-15% of people over the age of 65 and up to 50% of people over the age of 85.Every 68 seconds, someone in the world is diagnosed with Alzheimers disease. It spares no one, despite there race, gender, wealth or what youve done in life. Alzheimers diesease afftects the brain attacking cognitive fucntion and impairs memory. It defines who we are. Without our memories we have no past, we cannot plan a future and we cannot appreciate the present. so without our memories, who are we? 

My grandmother was a brilliant woman with a fantastic mind. With her husband a lorry driver and had to go away for days or even weeks at a time, her full time proffession was a house wife caring after the home and her two daughters. Throughout her life, My grandmother was a caring woman keeping her family close. In her later life, it was heartbreaking to see her mind begin to fade away, forgetting simple tasks such as: how to use a knife and fork, and how to do the laundry. As her disease progressed, she would forget who family members names, untill one day, she couldnt recognize who I was at all. 

Alzheimers research UK are a fantastic charity, researching for ways to delay this disease. Its final goal will be to one day finding a cure for this  terible disease taking control of peoples lives. Any donations made will be gratefully recieved and will make a huge difference to this incredible charity and thousands of sufferers around the world. 

Thankyou for taking the time to read my story.

 

 

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