NPL’s Andy Morris is taking part in the Alzheimer’s Research UK Running Down Dementia (RDD) challenge for the third year in a row. Here’s a short video of him talking about RDD and his experience of dementia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-tWwuYT0DA.
Here’s Andy’s story.
“You probably know someone who is living with dementia or someone who is a carer or has been affected by dementia in one way or another. If you don’t, then you are very likely to in the future as statistics inform us that 850,000 people in the UK are living with dementia resulting in an estimated 24.6 million people who know a family member or close friend living with dementia.
“My experience is of several family members and close family friends who have been diagnosed with dementia. Last year my mother died of vascular dementia, and my wife’s step-father died with mixed dementia. Recently, a distant aunt was diagnosed with dementia, and the effect that this had had on her family is profound. For me, this along with the loss of my father in the same year, resulted in a bout of depression (not nice) – this is not at all uncommon for carers.
“It is vital that more money is provided to research causes, early diagnosis, treatment and care for all forms of dementia. At the moment there are no drugs that will stop the progression of dementia once it has been diagnosed, and certainly none that reverse it or cure it altogether. However, there are promising signs, but more money is needed to speed up this research so that we don’t end up with yet another generation of people who are affected either as patients or as carers.”
To sponsoring Andy you can access his Everyday Hero RDD page here: https://runningdowndementia2018.everydayhero.com/uk/andy”