As many of you know during lockdown I got back into running and was not only joined by my rescue dog Buddy but also Ali a good friend from Kilve.  Whilst Ali was supporting the dementia research centre due to his family having Early Onset Alzheimer;s disease (FAD), there was high hopes that he was not going to develop the gene, which happens when someone is in their 40's or 50's unlike Alzheimers when people are in their 70's or 80's.  Unfortunately around 3 years ago, the news that neither Ali or his wife Mel wanted to hear became a reality and he found out that he is symptomatic to FAD which meant he had to give up the job that he loved as well as his driving license at just 47 years of age.

Ali and Mel have become very close friends to John and I and we are seeing first hand the devastating effect this disease is having on them.  Spending time running with Ali has shown exactly how FAD is effecting him and being candid it is not nice.  The short term memory loss, and lack of coordination is just the start and the grim reality is that Ali will only get worse from now on.

Running is a great release for Ali and whilst I creak he can just keep going and has already earnt the nickname of Forrest from us now and our team has grown by one as another Kilve friend Pete is also part of the running trio!  We did our first half marathon on the 18th September and said we would do three in 3 months with the second one already planned for the 3rd October with another one in November.  

Since many asked if we were doing this for charity I thought there would be no charity more deserving than the one that supports individuals with FAD and which Ali continues to give his time to research which will hopefully make a difference to others that may get the same diagnosis as Ali did just over three years ago.

As always with such things, every donation makes a difference no matter what the amount and I am hopeful that whatever I manage to raise here will be matched by EY.  

Thank you for reading my page and for any donation that you can make to this very worthwhile cause.