In October this year I will be running Cardiff Half Marathon to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society. In 2015 my dad Michael died as a result of dementia.  He was 62 years old. Many people think of dementia as older people getting forgetful but it is so much more than that;

• Dementia is a devastating condition. It’s not caused by getting older, but by diseases of the brain, like Alzheimer’s.

• There are 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK and this number is increasing by 100,000 every year.

• 4% of people living with one of the most common forms of dementia are 60 or younger.

• There are 4 main types of dementia which affect different areas of the brain and cause different symptoms.

• Currently there is no cure for dementia and only a handful of drugs available to help treat the symptoms.

The effects of dementia are devastating for the person affected and their family. It is utterly heartbreaking to see someone you love and who was so capable and talented become unable to do simple day to day tasks we would take for granted. One of my brothers summed it up as “my dad who used to be able to do everything now cannot do anything”

I’m by no means a runner and this is not something that is going to be easy but mile by mile I will be thankful for all the love and support shown by everyone. It means the world to us all as a family to have the continued support of friends and family when we need it, and when we think we don’t too! So being the determined type that I am I aim to complete every step, no matter how painful it gets and my target is to raise £1,310 - £100 for each mile. Every penny raised will help to support people living with dementia, their families and all the people who care for them.  It will help to raise awareness of dementia within communities to improve support for those living with the disease. The money raised by your kind donations will go towards supporting this. It will also fund vital research into the causes of the various types of dementia and bring us closer to effective treatments and a cure. On more than one occasion my dad was accused of being drunk by people who misunderstood the effects of the disease on his speech, his movements and his ability to process information or the way the disease affected his perception and experience of the world around him. 

Dad’s memory lives on in all of us and there’s not a day that goes by that we don’t think about him. We miss him loads and his sense of humour is just one of his qualities that is remembered by us all everyday.

Please help me to make a difference in memory of my dad, Michael.

Thank you all. See you at the finish. xx

#raisingawareness #togetherwecanfindacure #whenthegoinggetstough