Recently, I went to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital for Part 5 of the RADAR Alzheimer’s Research Study.

It is 6 months since I began this study and this time my daughter Evelyn, who is my research partner was there as well.

When we arrived, we were greeted by Alice, who took us through to one of the rooms and we chatted about how I had been and what I had been doing.

I gave Alice the tablet containers for the last 3 months so that she could check that I had taken the right number of tablets.

Along with checking my blood pressure every evening, this is a requirement of the study.

Sitting and standing blood pressures were followed by the usual blood being taken to check that my bloods were ok before continuing on the study.

The next stage was for Evelyn to go to a seperate room to answer some questionnaires.

Then it was my turn for questionnaires and cognitive testing.

The blood results came back ok, I was given the next 3 months tablets and then we waited for my Neurologist to finish her morning clinic.

My Neurologist was delayed as her clinic had overrun, but I know from working in outpatients that this may happen.

Sometimes a person needs more time than is allocated and my Neurologist is one of those Consultants that will go the extra mile for her patients even though she is under great pressure and lacks funding and support.

When she arrived, she needed to check the blood results my blood pressures and to have a chat about how I was doing.

We talked again about brain donation which I haven’t been able to organise yet as they are reworking the paperwork to incorporate the GDPR regulations, once done it is something I wish to do.

The only way to get a definitive diagnosis is after I have gone and hopefully my brain tissue will help further Dementia research in the future.

That all done, it was time to say goodbye and go to A floor to wait for our taxi.

Another simple example of how easy and safe taking part in research can be.