To my family, friends, and Industry colleagues
I know many of you receive many of these requests. I cant grow a mo and there is now less hair to shave so I have registered for The Chocolate Block Challenge and agreed to give up chocolate for the month of March to raise money for Alzheimer's WA. My mother passed away in 2018 from an 11 year battle with dementia and I committed to making a difference.
As Deputy Chair of Alzheimer's WA I am incredibly proud of the work they do in advocacy, research and delivery of services at Mary Chester House in Perth, Ella's House in Mandurah and Hawthorne House in Albany is extraordinary.
All funds that I raise will be donated to Alzheimer’s WA to support people living with dementia in Western Australia. One in ten 65yo's and one in five 85yo's will live with dementia and I am sure you or your family is already being touched by someone you know. The latest challenges of coronavirus and its impact on nursing homes reinforces how important our person centric, household model of care is.
Over 41,630 Western Australians are living with dementia and over 427,000 Australians. It costs our economy over $15bn and that is expected to rise to $25bn by 2030. To replace the incredible work of carers and families would cost over $60bn and by 2050 over $1.1bn people worldwide will be living with dementia.
As a voice in aged care and a deep interest in digital health, we need to do more to assist people living with dementia to live longer and more independently. I am interested in assistive technology to support care in the home; and also the amazing research being done in WA around cerebral amyloid protein. Early detection through eye biomarkers may offer hope of early intervention through drug therapy, nutrition, sleep, exercise and brain training to reverse impacts if detected early. I am personally participating in a 52 week double blind, randomised trial to better understand how PET, MRI, lumbar and ocular biomarkers can play in early detection.
Please donate whatever you can or at a minimum, forward this on your broader network to help raise awareness of this disease and the great work our not for profit organisation does in the community.
You can sponsor me and leave a message by selecting the donate button above.
Thanks for supporting our efforts in raising money for this cause which is close to my heart
Warren Harding
Deputy Chair
0401491110
Try wine next time!