My mum Alison and I will be lacing up our walking boots and tackling a 26-mile trek along the Northumberland coastline to raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Society on July 18 this year. It will be fun to go back to our old stomping ground, which we love so much.

But there’s a serious side to the endeavour too. We were inspired to choose this charity because my beloved Grandpa suffered from Alzheimer’s. John Steel was a hugely kind, funny, and intelligent man who spent his life helping others throughout the world - as an academic at Newcastle University and a consultant to World Health Organisation.

In his later years Alzheimer’s - this terrible condition for which we badly need to find a cure - robbed him of his warm personality and outstanding intellect. His experience will inspire us every step of our long trek.

We’re so grateful for any support you can give us.

Practical note: We were originally going to trek 13 miles, but decided to upgrade to 26 miles to challenge ourselves. It wasn’t possible to change our profile pages to reflect the new distance, but we’ll definitely be doing it!

Alzheimer’s Society are working towards a world where dementia no longer devastates lives. They do this by giving help to those living with dementia today and by providing hope for the future by campaigning to make dementia the priority it should be and funding ground-breaking research.Thank you for choosing to trek for Alzheimer's Society, together we can be help and hope to everyone affected by dementia.