Participants at this morning’s Parkrun on Tooting Common were encouraged to help ‘Run Down Dementia’ in order to fund vital research by Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK), the official charity partner of ParkRun UK.

Liz Allen, Principal Gifts Lead for ARUK and Tooting resident, gave a short pre-race speech telling runners that over 850,000 people in the UK are living with dementia and one in three children born today will die from it. “It’s our biggest medical challenge – shattering lives and robbing families of the people they know and love”, explained Liz.

Alzheimer’s Research UK exists to bring about the first life-changing treatment for Alzheimer’s and other diseases that cause dementia – and they have amazing scientists who are making breakthroughs every day towards this goal. Two of them are in fact also regular Tooting Parkrunners and were taking part today – Dr Selina Wray and Professor Simon Lovestone, who we featured here on Tooting Daily PRSS late last year as he cycled from Tooting to Buckingham Palace to collect a knighthood for his research into Alzheimer’s Disease.

The ‘Running Down Dementia’ campaign runs from this week until the end of August and is asking the powerful Parkrun community to run (or walk!) 100km – through Parkruns and your own runs - and raise £100 through sponsorship. It’s easy to get started and all runs are added to your fundraising page.

For more information and to sign up, visit www.runningdowndementia.org - a fun task to keep you motivated this summer!

For more information on Alzheimer’s Research UK, please visit their website.