Mrs Diane Allen

Dementia is an umbrella term for a range of progressive conditions that affect the brain. There are over 200 subtypes of dementia, but the five most common are: Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, frontotemporal dementia and mixed dementia.

The brain is made up of nerve cells (neurones) that communicate with each other by sending messages. Dementia damages the nerve cells in the brain so messages can’t be sent from and to the brain effectively, which prevents the body from functioning normally.

Regardless of which type of dementia is diagnosed and what part of the brain is affected, each person will experience dementia in their own unique way.

Dementia can affect a person at any age but it is more commonly diagnosed in people over the age of 65 years. A person developing dementia before age 65 is said to have young onset dementia.

There are over 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK and this is set to rise to over one million by 2021.

Dementia is the UK’s biggest killer. Someone develops it every three minutes and there’s currently no cure.

We know it is scary facing up to it, but we must confront the biggest health and social care challenge of our time.

Thanks to your support, Alzheimer’s Society is facing dementia head on. Whether you’re a fundraiser, donor, partner, or affected by dementia in any way, we’re working with you to build a movement. Inspired by your voices, we’re leading the way in support, society and research.

As the largest and most influential dementia charity in the UK, we are calling on everyone to unite. Working together we know we will achieve our vision - a world without dementia.