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Terry Pratchett battles Alzheimer’s in BBC documentary

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Date published: 
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
News source: 
Alzheimer’s Research Trust
Region: 
United Kingdom
Featured item on home page: 
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Sir Terry Pratchett, Patron of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, is to appear in a hard-hitting documentary on his quest to find a cure for dementia.

The two-part film will be broadcast on BBC 2 at 21:00 GMT on Wednesday 4th February and 21:00 GMT on Wednesday 11th February.
 
The news comes as the Alzheimer’s Research Trust announces it has received £200,000 of donations inspired by Sir Terry’s campaigning for the charity, which took him from Discworld conventions to Downing Street.
 
The programmes feature Sir Terry’s inspiring address to dementia scientists at the Alzheimer’s Research Trust’s annual conference in March 2008 where he pledged $1 million to the charity, and famously shared his views on voodoo, L Ron Hubbard, Lara Croft’s buttocks and a desire to “kick a politician in the teeth”.
 
The documentary, from the team who made Stephen Fry’s influential 2006 films on bipolar disorder (‘The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive’, BBC/IWC), follows Sir Terry as he learns more about his rare form of Alzheimer’s disease (posterial cortical atrophy, or PCA) and the work of world-class scientists – as well as, in Sir Terry’s words, “snake oil” peddlers – as they race for a cure.
 
One scientist who features in the programme, Prof Simon Lovestone, Scientific Adviser to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, said:
“It is vital that the public understands the importance of dementia research. Through his candid and positive response to his diagnosis, Sir Terry has been a great help in bringing scientists and the public together in our fight against dementia. He has not only raised awareness of dementia research, but also inspired many scientists working in the field.”
 
Rebecca Wood, Chief Executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, said:
“Sir Terry is challenging our perceptions of dementia. By standing up and shouting, he is catalysing real change in a field that has been neglected for too long. Dementia research is still severely underfunded, but the 700,000 people in the UK who live with the condition have a little more hope thanks to Sir Terry.”
 
Sir Terry Pratchett, Patron of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, said:
“This is not a disease of the bumbling, troublesome elderly. People get it in their fifties and sixties. I was diagnosed at 59 and sixty is supposed to be the new forty, so you can assume a certain tetchiness on my part.
 
“Certainly you are more at risk with age, but it is no more a natural part of aging than is cancer, yet the latter, in comparison, is flush with support and research. Alzheimer’s appears to be seen as a social problem rather than a medical one. A cancer patient is a battler; a dementia patient, a superfluous old fart.
 
“Is there going to be a government of any stripe in willing to put its money where it's mouth is and fund changes? Or will dementia remain the most feared disease of the over 55s? They fear the under-funded 'home', the loss of dignity and the chemical cosh.”
 
Cancer research receives about a quarter of the government’s medical research budget, whereas dementia receives just 3%. Sir Terry was so shocked by this, that he marched to 10 Downing Street in November 2008 to debate the issue with the Prime Minister.
 
Sir Terry is donating the majority of his fee from the programmes to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, with the remainder going to a Bristol-based dementia research centre, RICE.

 

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