On October 11th 2025 I will be completing the Alzheimer’s Society Memory Walk in South Shields. This is in memory of my grandma Nancy, who passed away in 2022 aged 90, after having been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in December 2021.

I have previously taken part in two other Memory Walks and found the experience amazing. Sharing memories, advice and support with over 1,000 people who have also experienced the heartbreak of Alzheimer’s disease was really moving and powerful. I’m really looking forward to taking part again, here’s hoping we stay dry! I am planning to walk the 7 km route (roughly 4.5 miles, marked on the map in blue), which parallels the Coast Road before doubling back along the coastal pathways.

Dementia is the UK's biggest killer. Nearly 1 million people in the UK are currently estimated to be living with it and this number is expected to rise to 1.4 million people by 2040. Almost a third of people living with dementia today do not have the diagnosis required to access financial and practical support as well as potential treatments. Alzheimer’s Society is a charity focused on care and research for the people who have dementia and the people who care for them.

Alzheimer’s Society has published resources and guides to provide support and information for both people living with dementia and those looking after them. These resources were hugely important to our family as we learnt how best to support and care for my grandma.

They also provide the Dementia Connect service, which offers face to face, telephone and online support for anyone affected by dementia as well as helping people to connect with a range of local services, such as Dementia Cafes, Dementia Advisers and local information programmes.

Alzheimer’s Society also invests money into dementia research projects. These aim to improve dementia care, understand what causes dementia and work towards curing it.

Faster diagnosis is a really important factor in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. My family first sought support for my grandma almost 4 years before her diagnosis, and we had noticed changes to her memory long before we actually reached out for help. By the time her diagnosis finally came it was at a stage where very little could be done to slow the progression of the disease.

Nothing could have prepared my family for the cruelty of Alzheimer’s disease. My grandma had been a secretary all of her life and didn’t retire until she was in her seventies. She had always been so clever, with a wicked sense of humour. It was heartbreaking for our family to watch her become unable to remember conversations that happened less than an hour previously, or even whether or not she had eaten lunch that day. The resources provided by Alzheimer’s Society helped us to cope with my grandma’s changing abilities, and enabled us to communicate better with her as we adapted to the disease.

By taking part in the Memory Walk I hope to raise funds to enable Alzheimer’s Society to keep providing the information, care and support that our family found so helpful in the last months of my grandma’s life, and to fund research in the hope that future generations might not have to fear aging and dementia.

Thank you for taking the time to read my page. I would really appreciate any sponsors for my Memory Walk. If you are unable to donate then please consider spreading the word about the work that Alzheimer’s Society does in its efforts to stop dementia devastating lives.

Thank you again for your support, Helen Morien xx