We’ve mentioned before on this blog that Terry Pratchett, creator of the Discworld, has donated nearly £500,000 to fund research into Alzheimer’s disease after being diagnosed last December. Well, his fans, inspired by his example, have started a campaign to double his donation. Via the website, you can donate or buy a T-shirt, and one enterprising fan has set up a site selling lilac pins for fans to wear on May the 25th, with all proceeds split between the American Alzheimer’s Association and the British Alzheimer’s Research Trust. (If you’ve read Pratchett’s Night Watch – and you should; it’s excellent – you’ll know the significance of “wearing the lilac”.)
It’s a worthy cause, and a wonderful initiative. One thing that Terry’s work has always done is bring people together: I know of several married couples who would probably never have met if not for a shared love of the Discworld. For myself, if it were not for Terry, I might never have wandered into the Dublin Forbidden Planet for the first time all those years ago in search of comics by “that bloke who co-wrote Good Omens”. I might never have read Sandman, or gone on from Sandman to read Hellblazer and Swamp Thing, or rediscovered the 2000ADs that I’d loved as a small kid, or come to appreciate the vast riches American comics had to offer me. There are friends I would never have met, wines I would never have drunk, chocolate-covered things I would never have eaten… and possibly shouldn’t have, but the experience was the main thing. My life would be immeasurably poorer if not for Terry Pratchett, and I’m just one of many thousands who can say as much.
And Terry’s not the only one who’ll benefit from this: 2-3% of people aged 65 have symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, and the probability of having the disease doubles for every five years a person lives after that. There’s no cure, and the low level of research funding is making it harder for researchers to find one.
Let’s not concede defeat. Let’s match it for Pratchett. And once we’ve matched it, let’s match it again. Please spread the word.
Katherine Farmar writes regularly on comics and culture, you can read more on her comics blog Whereof One Can Speak.
Tue, Mar 18, 2008
Books, Katherine's corner