When I signed up to this walk I had every intention of completing it this year but following a fall in December and advise from my physio I am no longer able to take part.... However my most wonderful Alice has agreed to step into the breech for me once again and will walk on my behalf.

Alice has been one of the most consistent people in my life, she has never faltered in her support of me, never left my side even when at times I've felt so lost I've tried to push her away. She is truly the other half of my brain and one of my life's soulmates. She didn't hesitate when I asked her to step in for me (after deciding on taking a year off treking) because she knows how much it means to me.

Alongside my equally wonderful husband, Paul, Alice will be walking 26 miles to raise money for Alzheimer’s Society all in memory of my Mum (Ali's Aunt), Our Grandma, Ali's Nanny Carol and for those living with the many types of Alzheimer’s and Dementia out there.

All of these pictures are the faces of Dementia, at least the faces of dementia in my life

Words have always been my power, my way to convey how things were, how things hurt, how I lived. But they say a picture is worth a thousand words and so I choose to share mine with everyone.

The picture of my Mum loving life doing ironing (I’ll never understand), the picture of her standing next to me after I married my Pauly, the picture of her in her hospital bed, weeks away from leaving us.

A picture says a thousand words but the only words that have stuck in my head since my mama left this life have been ‘come back’, truth be told I said those same words the day we had to leave her in her care home, the day we all celebrated her birthday and she didn’t know what was happening, the day she looked at me and didn’t know who I was, the day she forgot my home, her home, her town. I said those words so often over such a long period of time and I still say them.

Come Back, be whoever you are but be here, come back, be my best friend and confident, come back, love me the only way mama’s can…. ‘Come back’

I have walked a lot of paths in this life, l have lived with depression since I was 14, I’ve suffered the loss of children, partners, grandparents, friends. I’ve fallen to the bottom and somehow always found a way to climb back up. But honestly, I would do it all twice over if I never had to witness dementia and it’s impact on another human life again.

It wasn’t just my Mama, it was my Grandmama. My cousins and I had to watch this disease take away the two people who we loved so fiercely. The two people who had such a zest for life, who put their selves out there for others, who loved being alive. We had to watch them forget us, whilst trying so hard to remember us, to love us but be confused as to why, to hold us and know that no illness could break the love, family bond or safety.

Dementia took two magnificent people away from us and the voice in my head constantly tells me I’m next, I always believe that it’s just around the corner, that my life is destined.

My goal is and always will be to raise as much money and awareness of Dementia and Alzheimer’s as I possibly can and any money, be it a pound or a penny, will make such a difference to the lives this disease affects.

If dementia has touched your life know I am always here to talk to, rant with, lend an ear and a shoulder if you need it. And if it hasn’t my wish is that it never does, that this awful disease never impacts your life. 

There is only one way we can stop this disease, only one way we can make it through the days, only one way we can come out the other side and that is together.

With Love Always,

Mand

Xxxxx