A blog you really should read

We held a public meeting in Frome last night to help foment discussion about dementia care and research. We have a similar meeting arranged for this evening in Salisbury.

It really was great to see so many people there. We were hastily raiding the chair store five minutes before the start, because it was obvious that we had underestimated the turnout. A couple of BRACE-supported scientists gave excellent presentations and there was a presentation about care home design from the CEO of Gracewell Healthcare.

The other contributor was Beth Britton, a blogger from Oxfordshire, who will be with us again in Salisbury. We have been in contact with Beth for months and it was a pleasure to meet her at last. I think everyone at the meeting admired her bravery in standing up to talk about the still recent loss of her father to vascular dementia and the 19 years that she and her family spent caring for him as the illness took its inexorable toll.

Beth’s passion for the cause is beyond doubt. She is well placed to articulate the way many families feel, including anger at the poor standards of care to which patients are so often subjected. The response she received from members of the audience showed that her words had resonated with others facing similar challenges.

Beth writes a great campaigning blog called D4Dementia and I recommend it to anyone who feels strongly about dementia.

Surrounded by boxes

The state of my office at the moment reflects how much is going on at BRACE. It gives a hint at the many ways people can help us in the fight against dementia.

I have boxes of items to be taken to the meetings we are holding in Frome and Salisbury next week, and a third for an all-day event next Friday where we are the supported charity.

There are then more boxes, this time containing our 2013 calendar, one of which I have to take to St Mary Redcliffe Church in the morning.

Clogging up a bit more of the room is some computer hardware that we were kindly donated by Bristol University. We’ve started to replace our ageing computers and the university has helped us with the first two. We are on the lookout for more.

Just before I typed this, I posted a link on our website telling people how they could help us by sending mobile phones or printer cartridges for recycling.

Then a colleague came in with a query about the registration deadline for the Bristol Half Marathon on Sunday fortnight. (It’s still worth contacting us over the next 48 hours if you want to run – we have a couple of Gold Bond places left.)

There’s a lot more than this going on, of course, but the last few minutes and the temporary congestion in my office just shows how easily you can help us. Come to a meeting, ask your employer to support us at an event, buy a calendar, run for sponsorship or just donate your old mobile. For even more ways, have a look at our website. If you want to help, we can make it possible.

Are we nearly there yet?

It’s funny what makes connections sometimes.

As I was driving home yesterday, I had to stop in a narrow road while a harassed mother shepherded her very young children into the front and back seats of her car. She came over and apologised but I told her not to worry – I’m a parent too.

For some reason I then remembered driving to France for our holiday nine years ago. We had travelled a whole four miles when a three year old voice piped up from the back seat, “Are we nearly there yet?”

Which in turn made me think of dementia research (“Eh?” I hear you say). Most of us are in the position of small kids in the back seat, knowing that we started moving what seems an age ago, but we don’t know how close we are to arriving.

The difference between this journey and our drive to France is that we knew how many miles we had to go and, traffic jams and ferry cancellations aside, had a pretty good idea how long it would take.

No one can tell us how long this journey will take, but the scientists – the navigators – are giving us some clues. Research hasn’t been driving in circles for decades; it really has started to get somewhere. We know far more about the causes and are developing new ways to diagnose dementia earlier. There are some limited treatments available now that weren’t available when BRACE was founded.

And when a respected scientist goes on public record to say that he believes we will have treatments that will slow or even stop Alzheimer’s in ten years or so, I take him seriously.

Those who started this journey had less reason than we have today for confidence that we will reach our destination. Because they took the risk of failure, we now have far more reason to be hopeful, even if precise details of arrival time and exact location remain elusive. Whether or not we are nearly there, we’re on our way.