Mum's challenging run for Alzheimer's charity

Charlotte Langridge began running to help cope with looking after her parents-in-law, who both have dementia.

Running Down Dementia challenges participants to run 100km over the summer and raise £100 for the UK’s leading dementia research charity.

Charlotte, who lives with her husband and 14-year-old daughter, has already clocked up her 100km and raised £195 so far.

She heard about the challenge through a fellow runner at the Horsham Joggers group, which she is a member of.

Charlotte, who works in the business intelligence team for social services, said: “My mother-in-law’s symptoms started around 10 years ago and she was diagnosed two years ago. My husband’s dad was then diagnosed with dementia a year ago.

“They have always been very independent, they live in a very rural village nearby and it was sad having to take their driving licences away from them. They want to stay as independent as possible and find it difficult accepting help. I have to frequently check on them, and my husband and I have changed our working hours to help us to do this.

“I took up running as a way of giving myself something completely separate to do away from the family and undertook a 10-week ‘Learn to Run’ course. I wanted to do something which would allow me to keep up doing my 5km runs. Running Down Dementia was perfect for that, and it allowed me to raise money for a charity I really care for.

“I hope one day there can be a cure for dementia as it destroys so many families.”

Kenneth Foreman, Sporting Events Manager at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “Charlotte is a model Running Down Dementia participant, we are absolutely thrilled that she has exceeded her £100 target and just has a few miles on the clock left to go.

“Running Down Dementia is an inclusive event, whether people want to walk or run it, go for 5km a week or a marathon a day, everyone has the power to defeat dementia with Running Down Dementia.

“There are currently 850,000 people with dementia in the UK, including over 2,000 in Horsham. The money raised make a huge difference to our scientists’ pioneering work.”

To donate to Charlotte’s run go to https://running-down-dementia.everydayhero.com/uk/charlotte-9

To sign up to the challenge go to http://www.runningdowndementia.org/ or visit the Running Down Dementia Facebook page at www.facebook.com/groups/runningdowndementia/