Last year my wonderful Mum lost her long battle with Alzheimer’s, a truly horrible disease. 

I'm doing this walk in her memory and to try and raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society - my little bit to help support the wonderful work that they do.

Alzheimer’s Society is transforming the landscape of dementia forever. Until the day we find a cure, the charity creates a society where those affected by dementia are supported and accepted, able to live in their community without fear or prejudice.

It can be really difficult to explain to people who haven’t experienced dementia in their family, just what impact it has on your loved ones and your relationship with them. However, I'd like to share a poem that eloquently manages to do just that.  

It’s called Two Mothers and it’s by Joann Snow Duncanson.

----------

I had two mothers – two mothers I claim,

two different people, yet with the same name.

Two separate women, diverse by design,

but I loved them both because they were mine.

The first was the mother who carried me here,

gave birth and nurtured and launched my career.

She was the one whose features I bear,

complete with the facial expressions I wear.

She gave her love, which follows me yet,

along with examples in life that she set.

As I got older, she somehow younger grew,

and we’d laugh as just mothers and daughters do.

But then came the time that her mind clouded so,

and I sensed that the mother I knew would soon go.

So quickly she changed and turned into the other,

a stranger dressed in the clothes of my mother.

Oh, she looked the same, at least at arms length,

but now she was the child and I was her strength.

We’d come full circle, we women three,

my mother the first, the second and me.

And if my own children should come to a day,

when a new mother comes and the old goes away,

I’d ask of them nothing that I didn’t do.

Love both of your mothers as both have loved you.

------

Thank you very much to anyone who donates - it really is going to a very important cause.

Sx