Walking To Remember This September
As autumn approaches, the daylight hours shorten and the colour green begins to fade from the trees, thousands of people across England, Wales and Northern Ireland will ignore the shrinking temperatures, pull on their trainers and get walking.
The reason?
To remember...
Alzheimer’s Society's Memory Walks are held each year around the UK to raise vital funds to support people with dementia and their carers.
The walks range from less than a mile in length to up to 26 miles, so people of all abilities can join in. As well as raising funds, the walks help to bring families and communities together to do something positive and healthy, and raise awareness of the impact of dementia.
Television presenter and Alzheimer's Society ambassador Ruth Langsford is a big supporter of Memory Walks.
My father, Dennis, has Alzheimer’s Disease. When people are first diagnosed with this awful condition they and their families are often in shock and feel bewildered and isolated. Alzheimer's Society services are there to support people with dementia and their carers from day one.
Memory Walk is a fantastic event that brings the whole family together. This year is the tenth anniversary of Memory Walk and I would encourage everyone to sign up and help us make it a day to remember. You can even bring your dog.
Ruth Langsford
One of the reasons the walks are held throughout September is that September 21st is World Alzheimer's Day - an international awareness day aimed at raising the profile of the people living with this cruel disease.
Alzheimer's disease is just one form of dementia, and Alzheimer's Society fights for the rights of all people living with the condition.
Dementia is progressive and incurable.
It gradually reduces a person's ability to remember, think critically and even walk and talk.
In the UK we estimate 750,000 people have a form of dementia - by 2021 this number will top one million. One in three people over the age of 65 in the UK today will have dementia when they die. And the condition costs the UK taxpayer more than strokes, cancer or heart disease combined.
Memory Walk 2011 is being held in partnership with Bupa.
To register for Memory Walk please visit www.memorywalk.org.uk
Join the campaign
Alzheimer's Society's new report 'Support. Stay. Save. Care and support of people with dementia in their own homes' investigates the cost and quality of the care and support that people with dementia receive in their own home.
Make your voice heard - join the campaign for better care for people with dementia www.alzheimers.org.uk/campaignersnetwork
Alzheimer's Society is a charity (registration no. 296645) and a company registered in England and Wales (registration no. 2115499). Registered office is Devon House, 58 St Katharine's Way, London E1W 1LB
What are you doing on Sunday 30 October?
Run in the Bupa Great South Run to help support people living with dementia www.alzheimers.org.uk/greatsouthrun