UPDATED JANUARY 2020

This JustGiving page is due to close on 31st March 2020, three months after the end of the time that was set for the fundraising campaign. This will allow anyone to donate at a later date if they missed it during 2019. 

UPDATED DECEMBER 2019

STRETCH FUNDRAISING TARGET OF £2,000 MET!!! My original fundraising target was £1,825. I reached that on 20th October so extended the target to £2,000. Thanks to everyone who has donated during the year. I'll keep this page open until 1st January if anyone else would like to make a contribution.

The challenge was to run a minimum of 5k every day for the whole of 2019. 5k-a-day comes to 1,825 km (1,134 miles). I reached this distance target back in September so extended it to 2,400km. Fingers crossed I'll reach that by the end of December.

Alzheimer's is a cruel disease. It can be debilitating for those who have it, and heartbreaking for the family members supporting them as their personality changes and memory slowly slips away.

My mum has dementia, and my elder sister's mother-in-law had Alzheimer's towards the end of her life. So I wanted to do something to help. 

Alzheimer's Research UK is an official partner of parkrun UK and given my addiction to parkrun doing something that raises money for them was the obvious choice! Also, I work for the University of Manchester and we've received funding from ARUK for valuable research projects.

I realise that work commitments, long haul flights or injuries (I've had a couple...) mean I might not be able to run every single day, but I'm going to try my very best! To help me along I've run a few races including my first ever marathon - the Liverpool Rock n Roll Marathon - at the end of May.

I'm tweeting about my challenge throughout the year at twitter.com/itsafrogslife and posting regular updates on Facebook and my website itsafrogslife.net/grahamruns

I'm also be posting a weekly update on this justgiving page.

Da blurb...

If at all possible please make your donations direct via JustGiving. This process is simple, fast and totally secure and your details are safe - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. It's the most efficient way to donate - saving me and the charity time and cutting costs for the charity.

I realise there might be some people who prefer not to use online donation platforms like this or who just find it easier to shove a fiver into my hand at the end of a parkrun or concert. For these occasions I've set up a separate savings account to deposit any cash donations or direct bank transfers I receive. Although I'd prefer you used JustGiving if you'd rather donate via me get in touch. These donations will be added manually to the total on the JustGiving page then transferred directly to Alzheimer's Research UK at the end of the challenge.