Alzheimer's Research UK
Alzheimer’s Research UK is the principal good cause for which the Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation will be raising money in 2011/12.
Alzheimer’s Research UK is the UK’s leading charity specialising in finding preventions, treatments and a cure for dementia.
This year, in addition to our usual fund-raising initiatives during Iceland’s Charity Week, our Chief Executive Malcolm Walker will be making a very special contribution by joining an Iceland-sponsored expedition to climb Mount Everest. The Iceland Everest Expedition aims to raise at least £1 million for research into early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Dementia is one of the biggest and most feared epidemics of our time. There are already around 800,000 people in the UK suffering from dementia, a figure that will soon rise to over a million, with 163,000 new cases being diagnosed in England and Wales each year. A recent survey by Alzheimer’s Research UK found that British people dread the prospect of dementia more than cancer and death itself. Virtually everyone in the UK will have already been touched by dementia in some way, with some 25 million people currently having a family member or close friend affected.
Almost a quarter of all the people we know and love will develop Alzheimer’s disease, which is the most common cause of dementia. Yet dementia research continues to receive only a tiny fraction of the funding provided by both Government and charities for research into cancer or heart disease.
Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease is a particularly cruel affliction. It can affect people as young as 40: otherwise fit and healthy, typically with jobs and young families, perhaps also with responsibility for caring for an elderly parent. Research into early-onset Alzheimer’s is particularly important not just because of the exceptional burden that it imposes on sufferers and their families, but also because it offers an opportunity to look at people who are suffering only from Alzheimer’s disease, rather than the multiple diseases and conditions typically associated with old age. So by focusing on early-onset Alzheimer’s, we may be able to unlock secrets that will ultimately benefit all sufferers from the disease.
Alzheimer’s Research UK is the UK’s leading expert dementia research charity. As research experts, they specialise in funding world-class, pioneering research at leading universities to find preventions, treatments and a cure for dementia. They believe science and innovation hold the key to defeating dementia and invest in the scientists learning more about the condition and its causes.
Their findings improve the lives of everyone affected by dementia now and in the future. Alzheimer’s Research UK forges partnerships with Government and other key organisations to make dementia research a national priority. The charity encourages everyone to join them in supporting research and achieving a world free from dementia.
Click here to visit the Iceland Everest website
Click here to visit our JustGiving page for donations
Click here to visit the Alzheimer’s Research UK website
