On Sunday 13^th March, I will be taking part in the Silverstone Half Marathon. I am running for Alzheimer’s Research UK, a charity which challenges a regressive illness that causes devastating suffering to the patient and their family and friends.

From a personal point of view, I’ve seen the impact of this illness first hand as my Nan (dad’s mother) succumbed to this horrible disease 16 years ago while my Granddad (mum’s father) also fell victim and passed away two years ago. In addition, Katie’s Granddad has also developed the illness over the last few years and now lives in a care home where he receives 24 hour care.

Those that knew each person knew how wonderful they all were and I am eternally grateful for the time I spent with each of them - I cherish those memories every day. But the really devastating thing is that their personalities were all taken from them gradually to the point that they often became unrecognisable. The majority of people are aware of the impact on the memory however the effects are far greater – becoming unable to walk, eat on their own, wash etc. Simply put, their dignity was taken from them. Seeing a loved one deteriorate like that breaks your heart, it’s just impossible to express effectively in words. Three people close to me have been affected but some 44 million people worldwide currently suffer from Alzheimer’s or a related dementia.

Research into finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease has made great strides over the past few years with advances such as medication to slow down the disease’s spread. However ultimately the aim is to find a cure and Alzheimer’s Research UK is doing some incredible research into reaching this goal.

I’m not a strong runner so this is new territory for me – the furthest I had run when I had signed up last August was 5 miles. I’ve set myself a target time of 2 hours to complete the 13.2 miles and running in memory of those three fantastic people has given me all the motivation I need to do this.