On 27th June, we lost a very special person in our lives, Jan Pannell. My Nan did so much for me, she always took an active interest in my life, encouraged my interests, helped me cope with the loss of my Dad and was someone I could sit and chat to for hours on end. Among other things, I will remember the smile she would always greet me with and her distinctive laugh. After over a decade of bravely battling some of the most horrendous and challenging health issues including breast cancer, her dementia progressed and eventually she succumbed to its devastating effects.

On 10th October 2021, I'll be running the Royal Parks Half Marathon on behalf of Alzheimer's Society. I'm looking forward to the challenge (at the time of writing, I've never taken part in any competitive race events) but the most important thing to me is raising money and I need your help to do that.

Alzheimer’s Society is the UK’s leading dementia charity. They campaign for change, fund research to find a cure and support people living with dementia today. They've also done incredible work during the pandemic and lockdowns, including:

• Made 170,000 Welfare Calls to people affected by dementia. So far, over 40,000 people have received calls from our specialist Dementia Advisers who check in regularly to make sure people can access food, medication, and appropriate support.
• Received over 30,000 calls to the Dementia Connect Support Line. Over a quarter of calls to our Support Line have related to concerns about coronavirus, as well as the day to day challenges of living with dementia or being a family carer.  
• Helped over 3,000 people combat loneliness through our new Companion Calls service which launched in mid-April. Already, over 40,000 calls have been made by over 1,500 brilliant volunteers.  
• Pushed the government to respond to the growing crisis in care homes. People with dementia make up 70% of care home residents, and we will continue to fight for their rights in this crisis and beyond. Join our campaign.
• Provided reliable online support to hundreds of thousands of people. People have viewed coronavirus information on our website 630,000 times.

Every donation counts and sharing the link (and my posts on social) helps to get this in front of as many people as possible.

Thank you for your support!