Hi, I’m Georgia! I’m going to doing a 26 mile trek on the 12th of August 2023 around the Peak District in order to raise money for the Alzheimer’s society. Currently in the UK they are around 944,000 people living with dementia and this is set to rise to over 1 million by 2025. Any donations raised would help aid research into prevention and cures, also offering a support network to those diagnosed with this disease and their families.

As most of you know, my grandad, Allan Stanway passed away April 2022 from Vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s after being in hospital for a few months prior. 

We think he had Alzheimer’s for around 5 years before he died. However, when covid hit the dementia caused him to deteriorate much quicker. He began worrying about leaving the house, didn’t want his wife to leave the house. Worried about the safety of his family and their house. Then he started to forget names, faces, his wife. He didn’t believe his house was ‘home’ and he always wanted to leave when it got dark(sundowning). It was really hard on the family, especially my grandma who didn’t get a full nights sleep for the last 18 months of his life because she was frightened of him falling in the night. My grandma eventually seeked some support from social workers, who were trying to organise a care home for him to reside at. Unfortunately in January 2022 he suffered a fall at his home and was taken to hospital where he stayed until he passed away on the 6th of April - the day before he was meant to be moved to a dementia specialist care home 😓. There had been a spike in covid cases at the hospital around this time and we were unfortunately limited on numbers at a time who could visit. The night he passed we all came together as a family and shared our fondest memories of him together until the early hours,  we laughed and smiled together remembering all the good times we had with him. We think he would’ve wanted that. 

My grandad was the kindest man with a gentle nature. He loved his family and would do anything for us. To me, he was like a father figure.. He used to enjoy gardening and pottering about in his little shed before he got poorly. He was always guaranteed to put a smile on your face with his corny dad jokes or witty one liners🤣. Even when the dementia was really bad, we still got glimpses of his humour. 

I miss my grandad so much and I think of him everyday. I felt lucky in some ways to reach the age of 24 before I lost anyone close to me. But I also feel like the dementia robbed my grandad of at least a few more years because physically he was well and maybe without the dementia he would still be with us today. 

 I’ve been racking my brains on something I can do to challenge myself so I thought maybe a 26 mile walk might do it! I’ve never really committed to something like this before and I want to push myself to see what I’m really capable of and hopefully raise some money along the way. All for a great cause, the Alzheimer’s society were always really helpful when grandad was poorly, and offered support to my grandma and the rest of the family even once grandad had passed. 

I truly hope that one day we will maybe find a cure to end Alzheimer’s as it’s hard enough to lose a loved one. But it feels like you lose them before they’re even gone. 

Love you grandad!!! Hope I make you proud 🫶🏻