A personal story and request

My father served in the British Army for 35 years, leaving as a Brigadier. He then worked for the government for a further 5 years before retiring. He had hoped to read archaeology at Reading university as a mature student but was unable to do so, not least as he was diagnosed with Pick’s disease in 2004. Pick’s disease is a rare type of frontotemporal dementia that causes the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain to slowly shrink. It leads to major changes in behaviour, personality and language skills and currently there is no cure for it. I watched my father’s condition deteriorate over five years as he became a shell of himself .. he sadly passed away in 2009. Since then, my mother and I have been supporters of research into Alzheimer’s.

On Monday 28 September I’m walking 100 laps of the outfield at Lord’s … that’s around 50km in a single day for the Alzheimer’s Society. The last time I did anything like this was running the London marathon back in 2000 … I suspect that will have felt like a breeze compared to this challenge not least as I am now 62 and the marathon was only 42km !

To give you some context of the great work being done by the Alzheimer’s Society. The Society reports that:

• 83,414 people received support from its services

• More than 47,000 people used its Dementia Support Line

• 600 Dementia Advisers supported more than 10,000 people across the UK

The Alzheimer’s Society invests almost £5 million in research each year, funds 13 projects and supports more than 400 researchers. The work includes approaches intended to treat, slow or prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

My target is £2,500. If you can give anything at all, I would really appreciate it and I’ll think of you somewhere around lap 75.

Best regards

Chris