Community event raises £900 for Alzheimer’s Society

Maurice Helm with his wife

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A community event which took place on Saturday (5 August), has raised £900 for Alzheimer’s Society.

Bowling competitions took part throughout the day with a variety of stalls available including cake and food stalls, jewellery stalls, raffles and football cards. A cheque will be presented to the charity on Friday 1 September at Hare Hill Park.

Maurice Helm, from Littleborough Bowling Club, whose wife, sister and mother suffer from the disease, organised the event in their honour with the club to see how much they could raise. Given the immense success this year, he thinks a similar event will take place next year.

He said: “We managed to raise £900 which is more than we thought. Alzheimer’s is a horrible illness.”

Maurice will also be taking on the Memory Walk in Heaton Park in September along with his granddaughter Sophie, who raised £300 in aid of Alzheimer’s last year.

According to the Alzheimer’s Society, Alzheimer's disease affects more than 520,000 people in the UK. It is the most common cause of dementia, a set of symptoms that can include memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language.

Named after doctor Alois Alzheimer, who first described the disease, Alzheimer’s is a physical disease that progressively worsens over time and affects the brain with protein build-ups called ‘plaques’ and ‘tangles’. This leads to the loss of connections between nerve cells, and eventually to the death of nerve cells and loss of brain tissue.