Alzheimer's charity awarded £172,000 grant for 'promising' research

The Denise Coates Foundation has donated a generous £172,000 to Alzheimer’s Research UK to fund two dementia research projects.

The grant will be used to fund two three-year PhD research scholarships at the University of Sheffield, where researchers hope to obtain results that could lead to a prevention of treatment for dementia.

Denise Coates, who created and leads the foundation, has donated millions of pounds to UK and international charities since its founding in 2012.

Founder of bet365 and a former University of Sheffield student herself, Ms Coates said: “The Denise Coates Foundation is committed to supporting projects that have the potential to truly help people. Dementia is a devastating condition which affects families all over the world.

“We hope that this promising research can help to find a way to prevent or treat dementia and bring hope to the millions of people living with it across the globe.

“We can’t wait to see what results the studies yield.”

‘Amazingly generous gift’

One of the projects receiving funding will investigate the effects of cholesterol on the brain in Alzheimer’s disease, while the second will examine how damage to blood vessels in the brain can contribute to dementia and decline in cognition and memory.

Hilary Evans, chief executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “We can’t express our gratitude enough to the Denise Coates Foundation for this amazingly generous gift.

“225,000 people in the UK will develop dementia this year – that’s one every three minutes – yet there’s currently no cure or treatment that can stop or slow down the condition.

“We know that dementia is not a normal or inevitable part of ageing but the result of brain diseases. The research this grant funds will take us another vital step towards defeating dementia.”

Running Down Dementia funds a further two research studies

Two further studies at University College London (UCL) and the University of East Anglia have also received funding for research thanks to Alzheimer’s Research UK’s ‘Running Down Dementia’ challenge.

The mass event, which challenged participants to run 100km and raise £100 for Alzheimer’s Research UK, saw nearly 4,000 runners raise a total of £220,000.

The money raised from the event will help fund a research project studying the correlation between damaged blood vessels in the brain and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as an international landmark investigation into whether hip fractures speed up decline in people with dementia.

Kenneth Foreman, Sporting Events Manager at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “We are so grateful to each and every runner who took part in Running Down Dementia for their incredible achievements.

“The money raised will go towards two pioneering dementia research studies.

“We are already getting a huge number of sign-ups for 2017. We intend to keep the social media pages open for everyone to continue motivating one another to keep up the training throughout the year before the start of next year’s challenge.”