My name is John Hirst from Stockton-on-Tees and I am a volunteer for Alzheimer's Research UK trying to raise awareness of dementia, particularly early onset dementia.
My late wife, Pat, was diagnosed with Frontotemporal Dementia in 2012 and died from the form of early onset dementia five years later on 22nd July 2017 at just 66 years of age. To mark Dementia Action Week I will be taking on a challenge to walk 70 miles through historical County Durham from Newcastle upon Tyne to Norton-on-Tees between Saturday 16th May to Friday 22nd May.
During the walk we will be walking through your area, the attached poster gives some information with approximate timing. I can give more details of our route if you wish. Please feel free to share the poster with any local communities or people who might like to be involved.
If you'd like to join me for a whole or part of a day I would welcome company, let me know and I'll get back with more details. Donations to Alzheimer's Research UK can be made at
https://www.justgiving.com/page/happyhippycampus

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved lecanemab & donanemab for use in the UK in 2024. Both drugs have been shown to moderately slow cognitive and functional decline in early-stage cases of Alzheimer’s disease. However, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) does not recommend using it on the NHS. The success of the drugs demonstrates that dementia is an illness and that treatments and cures can be found by research.
Many people struggle to get an early dementia diagnosis. What if screening for the diseases that cause dementia could start with something as quick as a finger-prick blood test? An international study involving 1,000 people in the UK, USA and Canada is now underway to answer this question. Scientist are investigating if a simple, low-cost finger-prick blood test could help diagnose the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms begin. The Bio-Hermes-002 study will explore if the test could be used widely, offering a faster and more accessible route to diagnosis than current methods. https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/news/researchers-to-test-simple-finger-prick-blood-test-to-spot-early-signs-of-alzheimers/
If you would like to learn more about the work of Alzheimer's Research UK we can arrange a speaker visit at a later date as well.

Kind regards
John Hirst
0779 167 6257

A few stats about dementia:
The number of people living with dementia in the UK was estimated to be close to one million in 2024 (982,000), by 2040 this figure is expected to rise to 1.4 million.
Approximately 57% of the 982,000 people living with dementia in the UK are women.
The dementia diagnosis rate in England was 65.6% in December 2024. The dementia diagnosis rate in Scotland was 29% in 2021/22.
One in two of us will be affected by dementia in our lifetime. Either by caring for someone with the condition, developing it ourselves, or both.
1 in 14 people over the age of 65 have dementia in the UK.
50% of people with Down’s syndrome will develop dementia. By the age of 40, most people with Down’s syndrome will have begun to develop signs of Alzheimer’s disease in the brain.
In 2020, dementia killed almost double the number of women (46,000) than men (24,000). Dementia has been the leading cause of death for women since 2011.
Expenditure on research and development performed by UK businesses was £46.9 billion in 2021, 96% of all phase 3 dementia trials are funded by industry.
Last year Alzheimer's Research UK invested £27 million into dementia research - their highest amount to date.
There are 127 drugs in the current Alzheimer's Disease drug development pipeline.
In 2021/22, just 61 patients were recruited to late-stage dementia drug trials supported by the NIHR Clinical Research Network. 10 times fewer than for trials into stroke and coronary heart disease and 100 times fewer than for cancer drug trials.
Join Dementia Research is the leading registry for dementia research in the UK. Currently, only 2% of people diagnosed with dementia are registered.

 

 

Page added 19th April 2026