Retro News: Pratchett delivers Alzheimer’s funding petition (26 November 2008)

28 December 2008 (13:04) Alzheimer's Terry Pratchett News News Archives

On November 26, 2008, as part of his ongoing Alzheimer’s public awareness campaign, Terry Pratchett delivered a petition to Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Downing Street asking the government to increase funding for Alzheimer’s research. In his speech, Pratchett explains why Alzheimer’s research is so important:

Nearly everybody I have talked to around the country talks about caring for their mother or father with the disease, so it seems there is not a family in the land that hasn’t been affected, yet it is like a huge secret everybody shares.

Because Alzheimer’s affects the brain we have some real difficulties about it.

There is an air of witchcraft and superstition about Alzheimer’s as there used to be about cancer.

He has also said:

There’s only two ways it can go: researchers, with as much help you can give them, may come up with something that reduces the effects of this dreadful, inhuman disease, or we will have to face the consequences of our failure to prevent the final years of many of us being a long bad dream. The strain on carers and their support is bad enough now; before very long the effects on the health service and society itself, will be unbearable.

And:

A comparatively small amount of money and action now will prevent an awful lot of terrible stress and expense in the decades to come.

The petition reads, in part:

Dear Prime Minister, I am appalled that research into Alzheimer’s and related diseases, which affect 700,000 people in the UK, currently receives just 3 per cent of government medical research funding.

I strongly urge the government to increase funding for dementia research as a matter of urgency.

The Alzheimer’s Research Trust said that the petition contains about 20,000 signatures–including those of showbiz and sports celebrities and politicians–and is backed by more than 200 leading scientists.

Cardiff North MP Julie Morgan helped present the petition, and said, “Terry Pratchett spoke movingly in the House of Commons about his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s and of his future hopes

Terry Pratchett also appeared on the BBC to explain why he is delivering the petition. Another appearance, just after he delivered the petition, is also on the BBC website.