Earlier this year, as many of you will already know, my beautiful mother, Jean Margaret Gabriel passed away after living through dementia for over 5 years. I say living through because every day a little bit of her was blocked off from the world, a little bit less of her shined through until very little of the bright, funny, energetic, intelligent, and loving mother was able to engage with the world around her. A few days before she died a little bit of her that knew a little bit of me was still there and while I think back to as she was prior to the disease taking hold a lot, that last meeting where she kissed my cheek, as she had done when I was a little boy, and uttered a struggled love you is a moment I will remember for a lifetime.

She spent the last few years of her life in a wonderful dementia specialist care home in North Wales, with amazing people becoming her new family. What they do for people such as my mum and for all of us her family is amazing, and they are part of the bigger family that is out there not just fighting dementia with new cures but fighting to keep the lives of those with it as good as it possibly can be.

So, and while it is just a very long walk in the scheme of things, a group of my NDBS UK&I colleagues will be taking on the 50KM Thames Path Challenge on 14th Sep to support the fantastic work that Dementia UK do and to provide people like my mum and their families life-changing support and advice to those affected by dementia.