On November 28, 1520, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait that now bears his name.
On November 28 this year, the award-winning Insurance United Against Dementia campaign is once again raising awareness and funds for another voyage of discovery – pioneering research into treatments for dementia – the UK’s biggest killer.
How to get onboard
This short article is simply intended to ask insurance colleagues to be part of the journey – you can find out how you and your company can do so here.
‘Insurance Day for Dementia’ is a unique fundraising/awareness raising campaign led by the Insurance industry in collaboration with Alzheimer’s Society.
IUAD has already helped make pioneering research progress possible and provided vital support to people affected by dementia; including many in insurance.
We have raised over £9.6mn and expect to reach £10mn by March 2025. (FT Adviser supported the campaign last year, with a cake bake and online fundraiser, and will do something again this year.)
This year, Insurance Day for Dementia will include a 12.30pm ‘lunch and learn’ webinar with Dr Richard Oakley, who will talk of developments and hope for the future through progress in dementia research.
Two IUAD board members, Julie Godley and Dave Carey will share their personal experiences of how dementia has impacted them and their families. For some additional moving story-telling, I’d highly recommend watching Anna Richardson – love, loss and dementia.
Dementia is a devastating condition that strips away people’s memories and connections to the world. There are currently around one million people in the UK with dementia and many more yet to be diagnosed – the chances are that we all know at least one of them, a family member, friend or colleague.
With no cure, one in three people will develop the condition in their lifetime. For many, the disease has a devastating personal impact, but there are also far-reaching consequences for society – it currently costs the UK economy over £42bn every year.
With greater investment into research, people will gain needed diagnosis and treatments. For 20 years, there have been no new treatments to stop or slow dementia’s progression.
Thanks to initiatives such as IUAD, we are now on the cusp of transformational change. In the past year, two promising disease-modifying treatments have been announced.
These drugs are the first to slow cognitive decline in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, bringing to fruition decades of research. Importantly, the funds raised by the IUAD are distributed both to research and to dementia care.
We are raising awareness too, through talks, podcasts, social media and ‘the Dementia Friends’ initiative, which involves creating a greater understanding among those working in insurance and elsewhere – it simply means finding out more about how dementia affects someone – and then, armed with this understanding, doing small everyday things to help.
