Terry Pratchett, one of Britain’s best-selling authors and one of the world’s leading fantasy writers, has announced that he’ll donate $1m to research into Alzheimer’s disease. Pratchett himself was diagnosed with the disease in December. BBC News writes:
“I am, along with many others, scrabbling to stay ahead long enough to be there when the cure comes along. Say it will be soon – there’s nearly as many of us as there are cancer sufferers, and it looks as if the number of people with dementia will double within a generation. [...] It is a shock to find out that funding for Alzheimer’s research is just 3% of that to find cancer cures.”
However, the Alzheimer’s Research Trust estimates that just £11 per patient is spent annually on research into the disease – compared with £289 for each cancer patient.
Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, said the trust currently had to turn down two out of every three research projects due to lack of funds.
She said: “Whilst we were deeply saddened to learn of Mr Pratchett’s diagnosis, we are delighted that he has chosen to speak out about his experiences with Alzheimer’s disease, to raise awareness about its impact and the desperate need for more research.
“Research is the only way to beat this disease and help people like Terry – to prevent them losing their thinking skills and keep them doing the things they love.”
Link to full article
Update: Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing writes:
Pat Cadigan has started a campaign to get 500,000 Terry Pratchett fans to donate £1 each to Alzheimer’s research, matching the funds put up by Pratchett himself, who was recently diagnosed with rare, early-onset Alzheimer’s — the calls the campaign “Match it for Pratchett!”
Today, it was announced that Terry Pratchett has donated half a million pounds to Alzheimer’s research. Hearing that, it occurred to me that if half a million of us all donated a pound to Alzheimer’s research, we could match his donation and make it an even million.
So whaddaya say, guys? It’s a pound. That’s about 2 bucks US dollars, give or take a couple of (US) pennies. You can spare that much. Go here and make your donation. Tell them it’s in honour of Terry Pratchett.
Let’s do it!
Link (Thanks, Pat!)