Why I've chosen to fundraise for Alzheimer's Research UK

From the outset of planning my Sixty at 60 challenge, my overall goal has been to ensure that others will benefit from my adventures. There are many good causes that I would (and do!) support. But for the next six months the charity that I've chosen to raise money for is Alzheimer’s Research UK and I thought I must explain why.

When I first met Andrew's mother, Grace, she was in her mid 60s – a sweet-natured, gentle, modest, dignified, kind-hearted person, a little old-fashioned in her ways but just beginning to develop a http://www.laterbloomer.com/jenny-joseph/ take on life. She loved animals, was a devout church-goer and enjoyed a drop of mead on special family occasions – here she is with Andrew and his father the night before our wedding.

Five years on, just after her 70th birthday, Andrew's father noticed that she was becoming very forgetful and withdrawn. They arrived to stay with us for a weekend visit.  I brought out the tea tray and as usual asked if she’d ‘be mum’. I watched her pick up the tea pot and pour the tea into the sugar bowl. Now let’s face it, I’m capable of doing that sort of thing if I'm distracted! But what really struck me was that she then picked up the sugar bowl, proceeded to try and drink the tea-soaked sugar from it and didn’t seem to notice that her mouth was filling up with small dollops of sugar rather than a decent swig of tea. At that point, we were pretty certain that dementia was beckoning. 

Dementia did take hold of Andrew's mother. She lost the ability to hold conversations, to feed herself, to control her bodily functions and to engage in everyday life around her. Andrew's father became ill through having to look after her 24 hours a day and she was eventually admitted to a local cottage hospital for long-term nursing care. Our children never really knew her as a granny and were quite frightened by the fragile and sometimes agitated lady they went to visit in hospital. 

Since Grace's death 20 years ago, a number of other relatives, friends and neighbours of ours have been diagnosed with various forms of dementia. This isn't surprising of course, as it’s a highly prevalent
condition. Two in a hundred people aged 65-69 are estimated to have it and this figure rises to one in five for those aged 85 to 89. 

Living with dementia is highly distressing, not only for the person with the diagnosis but crucially too for those in a carer role, who are at risk of becoming isolated and exhausted. This means a very large number of people are affected by it. And yet research into Alzheimer's and dementia diseases remains severely under-funded.  There is little in the way of effective treatment to slow down its progress and none to cure it or protect us from getting it. 

That's why I want to help raise money for Alzheimer's Research UK - it's the leading research charity in the UK for Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, and I think it's so deserving of support. Over the next 6 months I'm hoping to talk to friends and neighbours who have been going through the experience of having or caring for dementia and I'll post their stories.  And of course I'd be really interested to hear of your stories too - either as comments posted on this blog or through emailing me at sixtyat60challenge@gmail.com.   

One of the most important tasks on my Sixty at 60 list is to become a Dementia Befriender (through Alzheimer's Society http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/ ) to offer support to families coping with dementia. As I work through the rest of the list, my hope is that you may feel sufficiently entertained or inspired by a task (perhaps one where I have to face a fear and/or possible humiliation??!) to make a donation, however small, through my justgiving page  https://www.justgiving.com/Vivien-Hunot/

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