Paris Marathon 2025 for Alzheimer's Research UK

Hi!

My name is Lucas Jackson and I am an American university student studying abroad in Scotland and hoping to run the Paris Marathon in April of 2025 with a charity placement from Alzheimer's Research UK. All donations to this purpose will be given directly to Alzheimer's Research UK, the United Kingdom’s leading dementia research charity, funding world-class scientists to find preventions, treatments and a cure for dementia.

Their mission is personally important to me since I have watched my grandmother, Marianne, suffer from the disease over the past ten years or so. Once the president of the New York State Psychological Association, my grandmother was a civil activist who protested with Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington. My grandmother was also a life-long activist for working class social causes and more humane practices in the field of psychology, as well as the person who taught me how to play chess. It is saddening to see her identity, wisdom and experience, whisked away with her memory. The weight is heaviest on my father and his siblings as they must make accommodations to take care of the woman who once took care of them but is now no longer able to take care of herself. One of the hardest aspects of dementia is how it takes people’s personalities away; even the minds of the most full-spirited among us can completely disappear. For me, seeing its effects, and knowing that many of my family members are predisposed to this condition constitutes a personal reason to help promote Alzheimer's Research UK’s aims towards better treatments and hopefully solutions. Any contributions would be sincerely appreciated by me. :)

More information about Alzheimer's Research UK, their research, and dementia in general, can be found here: https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/

Thanks!