In 2016 my Grandma was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia. Despite knowing the diagnosis was coming, as a family we found this difficult to deal with, as we didn’t know what was to come over the next few years.

Grandma slowly lost all memory of who we were – this was the hardest part. Despite my family’s best efforts to care for her ourselves, it became too difficult. Grandma is now living in a lovely nursing home with family visiting her regularly. Seeing her singing and dancing and laughing is one of the best things I’ve experienced. She doesn’t know who we are, or where she is, but we can see she is happy most of the time - which means a hell of a lot.

Grandma will never be the same person she was, but I’m incredibly grateful that I still have those fond memories of walking down to the beach where she used to live, or when she’d come to stay at our house and I’d sneak into her bedroom to read books in a morning when it was too early to wake mum up!

During 2021, Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease was one of the leading causes of death in England and Wales – with only coronavirus claiming more lives. 

52% of the UK public know someone who has been diagnosed with a form of Dementia, so this disease affects a huge proportion of us. There are currently 944,000 people living with dementia in the UK – this number is predicted to increase vastly in future years as life expectancy rises, meaning more and more families will be affected. 

I have chosen to run the London Marathon for the UK’s leading dementia research charity, Alzheimer’s Research UK - whose mission is to bring about the first life-changing dementia treatment by 2025. I want to contribute to minimising the impact on other families experiencing the effects of this cruel disease in the future.  

Many people are aware of Dementia but a lot of people accept it as a normal process of ageing – 49% of the UK say Dementia is the health condition they fear the most. I want to raise awareness for the ground breaking research that is currently going on, and show that there can be a cure.

·      Fund world class research to understand the changes in the brain that cause Dementia

·      Improve early and more accurate diagnoses 

·      Work towards life-changing treatments

·      Understand Dementia risk reduction

My Grandma was the most charitable person I have ever met and could never do enough to help others. I know that if she could understand that I wanted to run the London Marathon for Alzheimer’s Research UK she would be incredibly proud.

Mum and Grandma have lost the relationship they had for 50+ years as a result of Dementia, and it has taken a number of years for my Mum to come to terms with it. This is why I want to raise as much money as possible to help this amazing charity, to ensure that other families in the future don’t have to experience the upset that my family and others across the country have experienced. I truly cannot wait to make both my Mum and my Grandma proud!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page, I greatly appreciate any donation – no matter how big or small :)

Training is currently on hold as I’ve got a broken ankle – it just makes the end goal even more of a challenge but anyone who knows me knows I love a challenge!