So why am I doing this? Well my Mum (Chris) died from Alzheimer's 2 years ago on the May bank holiday.  She was 71.  She never knew my children really, she had started to deteriorate when I was pregnant with my eldest (Jamie now 12) was diagnosed when I was pregnant with my middle child (Oli now 9.5) and had to go to be cared for in a nursing home near York just before my daughter Lily was born (she's now 6.5).  She only just knew her Grandaughter Harri (now 17).  We all really missed out. Mum was a real mover and shaker and was known for her work with the child witnesses in the courts (this was after many years as a secondary school teacher).  She even met Tony Blair at No.10 when he was in office in recognition of this work.

The home near York that Mum was in did a really great job with her.  Sadly her personality changed and she became quite agitated at times.  However, some of this could be down to her inability to effectively communicate as she lost her spoken language.  The irony of this was, I was then and still am now a Speech and Language Therapist working every day with people with dementia.  Sadly Mum used to get very frustrated with me whenever I tried to help with her communication, however she very much enjoyed my children visiting and also my brother.    

So the people I work with every day who stay in the acute wards in the hospital I work in, sometimes for months at a time due to a lack of nursing home beds, can prove to be very difficult to work in at times for personal reasons.  Especially the time another "Chris" of the same age and diagnosis arrived on the wards I was working on only 6 weeks after Mum died. This lady's nursing home didn't understand how to help a young patient with dementia who was still walking with their eating and drinking so she came in with severe malnutrition as she was unable to sit down to a meal.   

However, my main reason for doing this event came about after Jamie had been to Scouts one evening and become upset at how people don't understand what dementia is and found it funny.  It can be funny at times, but often it is just tragic. So I realised that I had to stop running away from dementia and all the bad things and start to do something positive with it. So here goes.  Royal Parks 1/2 marathon.  Last year I did manage to get to be able to run for a half hour straight, then summer happened and then I broke a toe, so I'm back to square one.  This time though Jamie and Oli are going to join in my training and Lily will ride her bike along side us. 

If you are able to spare some money it would be greatly appreciated, also running buddies are welcome to join me in my training!

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