Hope, not certainty

The trouble with positive news about dementia research is that it tends to be over-egged by the media or just misunderstood by some of the readers and listeners. Perfectly understandable when we all want good news.

The announcement last month of genuinely exciting progress achieved by researchers in Leicester is a case in point. In ten years’ time we might regard it as the moment dementia’s defences were breached, a discovery that led to greater things and then more great things. For the time being, however, it offers hope rather than certainty.

The BBC was careful in its tone, but I am sure there will have been less restrained reporting elsewhere.

There was plenty of scope for misinterpretation. The day after this news broke, I overheard a visitor in our office say, “So they’ve found a cure for Alzheimer’s, then.”

“No, they haven’t,” I quickly called out from the next room, resisting the temptation to add an expletive in front of “haven’t”. I then hurried out to explain to the visitor what had really happened.

We can’t afford to let it be thought that this is a time to sit back and relax. The BBC’s headline might have contained the words “breakthrough” and “turning point”, only the latter in inverted commas, but we’re a long way from home.

One certain outcome of the announcement is that there will be new research proposals, seeking to build on what happened in Leicester. We would welcome them, provided we have the funds to support them. That, in turn, depends on supporters keeping up the good work and raising the money we need to fund new research.

In other words, it really could be a breakthrough if we keep up or step up the fundraising needed to build on it, but it won’t be if we start to ease off, thinking it takes us further than it really does.

I hope it motivates current and potential supporters to help us secure the funds we need for the next and critical phase of dementia research.