Young filmmakers aid Alzheimer’s fight

Still from the end of the film, showing Filton students holding banners with the BRACE logo

30 June 2010

Two students at Filton College in South Gloucestershire, with the support of academics at Bristol University, have used their coursework to help local Alzheimer’s charity BRACE.

Two enterprising students at Filton College in South Gloucestershire have used their coursework to help local Alzheimer’s charity BRACE.

Jack Maddox and James Reeves were required to produce a video about a subject of their choice and saw an opportunity to help explain dementia and the need for research to other young people.

They received support from BRACE itself, of course, but also from Bristol University scientists Dr Pat Kehoe and Dr Andrea Tales and SW Dementia Brain Bank Manager, Laura Palmer.

The final video has been put on YouTube and it can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0EoYJ3cQUw. It is being released now to mark the beginning of National Dementia Awareness Week, which starts this Sunday, July 4.

Jack Maddox said, “We hadn’t much knowledge about Alzheimer’s disease beforehand but after talking to BRACE we found out what a devastating disease Alzheimer’s is and how vital it is to stop it for future generations. We felt it was important to let younger people know this so there would be a new generation of funding for Alzheimer’s research that can put an end to Alzheimer’s disease destroying lives and communities.”

BRACE Chief Executive Mark Poarch said, “It is often supposed – wrongly – that young people don’t know about dementia or are not really interested in helping to fight it. So many younger people encounter it in their lives because a grandparent or another close relative has the illness, and they are strongly motivated to help. Let us hope that, long before they enter the high risk age group themselves, the research we are doing now will have enabled us to diagnose dementia earlier and stop it in its tracks.”

Dr Patrick Kehoe, Gestetner Senior Research Fellow at the University’s Dementia Research Group, added, "It is tremendous that young people want to find out about Alzheimer’s disease and I was more than willing to help in the making of the video. The impact of the illness on family life is severe and at present there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease."

Further information

The Dementia Research Group, headed by Dr Patrick Kehoe and Professor Seth Love, is focused on the molecular epidemiology and pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The Group’s research programme translates a number of interwoven research themes using molecular genetic, biochemical, cell culture-based and neuropathological approaches to the study of dementia. The Research Group is part of the University of Bristol’s Department of Clinical Science at North Bristol (CSNB) and is based in the John James Laboratories at Frenchay Hospital.

BRACE (Bristol Research into Alzheimer’s and Care of the Elderly) was established in 1987 to raise money for research into Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia. It has raised over £11 million and supports world-class research in Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Bath and Cardiff.

Please contact Joanne Fryer for further information.