March 14, 2008
Pratchett Pledges $1 million to Alzheimer's Research
Terry Pratchett, and author all fans of fantasy know and love, recently announced that he suffers from a former of early-onset Alzheimer's that horrible disease that robs your mind of so much.
Well it turns out that he has donated some of his wealth ($1 million) to Alzheimer's research.
Mr Pratchett says, “Part of me lives in a world of new age remedies and science, and some of the science is a little like voodoo, but science was never an exact science, and personally I'd eat the arse out of a dead mole if it offered a fighting chance.""I have had Alzheimer’s now for the past two years plus. It’s is a nasty disease, surrounded by shadows and small, largely unseen tragedies. There's nearly as many of us as there are cancer sufferers, and it looks as if the number of people with the disease will double within a generation. It's a shock and a shame to find out that funding for research is three per cent of that which goes to find cancer cures."
Read Pratchett's speech at the Alzheimer's Research Trust Conference.
Well, one enterprising fan has called on all fans of Terry Pratchett to match that gift by donating (1 pound to the UK charity - about $2 for the US branch) to the same research foundation. The group on Facebook is already at 29 members, even though it is less than a day old.
UPDATE: The Guardian profiles Pratchett.
Or get a t-shirt and/or free wallpaper and icons in support of this effort.
Posted by John on March 14, 2008 09:28 AM | Posted to Fantasy/Scifi NewsShare:
Personally, I'm more scared of this disease than cancer. I can't imagine how Terry and his family are dealing with it, so I wish them the best in beating the disease. Also, only three percent of what cancer funding is? Ridiculous...
Posted by: Robert on March 14, 2008 07:16 PMKudos to him; lots of medical funding comes only through drug companies, who usually have agendas for who they will decide to fund. Partially cancer has a lot more funding because it is in vogue (as a cause) and there are a lot more drugs that people develop for getting rid of it!
You always have to question, though, exactly where the funds of the foundation go to mainly--is it a high percentage for research, or does it mostly go to awareness type marketing? Both are worthwhile, but which do you want? That's partly the issue with donating for breast cancer research, etc.
Posted by: Sara J. on March 15, 2008 12:38 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
http://covblogs.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/11865
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Pratchett Pledges $1 million to Alzheimer's Research:
