Roald Dahl was born 100 years ago this week. His books seem be being studied at present in most Horsham primary schools and his stories remain enduringly loved by children. As he wrote of his character Mathilda’s book reading “she travelled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village.”
Sadly Gene Wilder who for many captured the very essence of “Willy Wonker” in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory died this week of complications from the Alzeimers Disease with which he had lived for 3 years. I found it moving that his family’s statement said he had refused to announce that he had condition for a simple reason. Children regularly saw him in the early stages, as they had for many years and been hugely excited to have seen “Willy Wonker”. This gave him pleasure and he had no desire for some adult to burden them with what he viewed as unnecessary information.
Early this year my team and I were trained to be “Dementia Friends” through a scheme run by Horsham District Council. I am very conscious that 1 in 14 of over-65s live with the disease – some 850,000 across the UK.
It rightly receives a huge research focus globally and the UK is more than playing its part. A huge amount of research is paid for charitably in the UK, alongside Government support that has doubled and is pledged to be maintained until at least 2020: the UK’s first ever Dementia Research Institute is receiving £150 million alone
Medical Research is a hugely difficult area with so many very worthy causes desperate for funds – I learned about yet another at the request of a constituent this week. However I was delighted to read of the breakthrough that appears to have taken place in Alzeimher’s research. Recent studies, reported last week – albeit as yet on a small scale – on the anti-body Aducanumab suggest that a major step forward in getting on top of this horrible disease may be possible. There is much more work that needs to be done but this is an area where real progress is being made.