Last year best-selling author Terry Pratchett (best known for the Discworld series) revealed he had Alzheimer’s Disease. Faced with this “embuggerance”, Pratchett looked into the disease more and was shocked to find how terribly underfunded research in this area was. He promptly donated half a million British pounds (approx $US1 million) to Alzheimer’s research, and also has made it his business to publicise the ‘silent epidemic’ facing society.
Pratchett fans have since ‘joined forces’ with him by independently initiating a grassroots campaign called “Match It for Pratchett“. They’re calling for the public to match Pratchett’s donation (collectively) by giving to Alzheimer’s research organisations. It’s definitely a disease likely to touch nearly all of us in one way or the other throughout our lifetimes, so certainly worth getting involved with – if you can’t afford the donation, at least spread word to a few people.
As they say in Discworld, we are trying to unravel the Mighty Infinite using a language which was designed to tell one another where the fresh fruit was. – Terry Pratchett
