Young people care about dementia

This statement may or may not surprise you, but it’s not the traditional image of dementia charities. The reality is that young adults and even children often know the pain that dementia can cause because someone in their family has it.

We are attracting more and more young people who want to take part in sponsored events. We had our best ever London Marathon this year and are currently recruiting runners for the Bristol Half Marathon. There are many other sponsored events that our supporters sign up to and some of them even go it alone.

We are engaging more with secondary schools, and feedback suggests that many of their pupils identify with what we are doing because of a grandparent or elderly aunt or uncle who has dementia. Last year, we had great support from Bradley Stoke CommunitySchool, who sent a small group to meet BRACE-funded scientists and then raised £520 over two days. Last week, I went to Orchard School in Bristol, accompanied by Laura Palmer (Manager of the SW Dementia Brain Bank) to give a presentation. They, too, are determined to support BRACE this year and I know that the cause has personal significance for some of their students.

It is great to see younger people, including teenagers, taking up this crucial struggle. It is they, rather than today’s elderly people, who stand to gain most from current research. However, old age seems a long way away when you are in your teens or twenties, and it is clearly compassion and sometimes the pain of loss that drives them, not anxiety about the risks they may face in later life.