Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

As some of you may be aware, myself and Daisy applied to run the 2018 London Marathon on behalf of the Alzheimer’s Society and while Daisy was accepted straight away, I managed to secure a slot at the last minute in December, hence the delay in getting this set up!

Sadly, our dad - at the age of 54 - was diagnosed with early onset alzheimer’s a few years back and since then it has been hard to come to terms with the changes this awful condition causes; this is the man who I would go to watch the Arsenal with whenever I was back in the UK, the man I would have good lengthy chats with whenever I called home, putting the world to rights and he was the best man at my wedding. To go from that to suddenly considering it a victory when he recognises me, albeit briefly, and to know that he will never get to play with his future grandchildren is truly heartbreaking. 

Unfortunately, there are 850,000 people with dementia in the UK, with numbers set to rise to over 1 million by 2025. This will soar to 2 million by 2051. 225,000 will develop dementia this year, that's one every three minutes. 1 in 6 people over the age of 80 have dementia.

Dementia research is desperately underfunded. For every person living with dementia, the annual cost to the UK economy is over £30,000 and yet only £90 is spent on dementia research each year.

Alzheimer's Society is committed to spending at least £150 million over the next decade on dementia research to improve care for people today and find a cure for tomorrow. This includes £50 million to develop the UK’s first dedicated Dementia Research Institute.

As a family, we have already lost a grandfather, an auntie and now our dad to this terrible condition and I am fully aware that I too am at risk. As a result, I want to do whatever I can to raise as much money as possible for the Alzheimer's Society and would ask for your support with helping me do so. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this - now, dig deep and get donating!