When I saw that the Alzheimer’s Society was organising Trek26, a half-marathon from Bakewell, it occurred to me that a team of people suffering from Alzheimer’s competing in this as a relay team would evoke a lot of sympathy and raise lots of sponsorship.  I therefore recruited my team of Caryl Hartwright and Jeremy Brayshaw together with 2 Dark Peak members, Alan Yates and Jeff Harrison.  Their ages range from 77 to 87 and all have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.  The Alzheimer’s Society was supportive of the idea but would not let us compete in the actual Trek26 since participants had timing chips and they did not want people changing these.  They therefore suggested that we could organise our own event around this course and so Pre-Trek26 was born.  The route is shown below.

The initial plan was that Caryl would run the first 4 miles with me but Caryl broke her foot 3 weeks before the event. Undaunted, at 9.00 a.m. on Tuesday 9 June Caryl. Steve Terry, myself and Scott Blanks, whose father has Alzheimer’s, assembled at the showground at Bakewell.

Caryl was then whisked off to Baslow whilst we three set off running the four miles through Chatsworth park to just before the revolving gate at Baslow.

There we met Caryl with a bunch of Totley supporters and Caryl walked a token 200 yards to meet Jeremy at the gate.

Jeremy set off at a brisk pace but tired walking up the hills in Calver and the hill above Stoney Middleton.  However, he gritted his teeth and continued doggedly to the change over point on the Calver/Stoney Middleton road.

At this point it was pouring with rain and organising a team photograph with everyone showing off their Alzheimer’s T-shirts was problematic in that we did not manage to include Alan Yates.

Jeff and I then set off, supported a group of 8 including Alan Yates and Jeff’s wife, Rita. This stretch included a steady climb about a mile long and not many 87 year olds, with or without, Alzheimer’s, could have managed this but Jeff, like the trooper he is, plodded on.  These Dark Peak are a tough lot!  Tired but happy Jeff made it to the next check point -Rowlands.

Alan (shown below on the right) and his 2 son’s George and Sam, together with …

..myself and five other supporters strolled in the pouring rain down hill along the Monsal trail to Bakewell where we arrived around 3.15pm.  Job done.

To date the team, with Gift Aid, has raised £6,775. The Just Giving pages are still open. It would be amazing if we could manage another £180 with gift aid to top £7000 and help beat this dreadful disease.