Race Against Dementia

Some time has passed since my last post on here, even though a lot has been going on in my life, but nothing that would really be worth writing something about, at least in my own opinion. But that all changed a few weeks ago, when I (finally) built my own gaming PC, and heard about an amazing charity event that is going to happen less than a week from the day of writing this. The event is going to be a 12 hour charity endurance race on Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC), in support of a charity. This is going to be a bit of a different post to my previous ones, a bit shorter as well, but it will be focused on one thing, and one thing only.

One of my biggest wishes a few months ago, when it comes to sim racing at least, was to be able to join a team and do some longer endurance races, like 12 or even 24 hour long. As there’s not that many races like that organized on consoles (PlayStation or Xbox), so I had to build a gaming PC to even be able to join. I made it happen, after a lot of nervous moments, and literally a couple of days after finishing my build, I was watching a stream by Théamusante on YouTube (check out her channel right here), when an opportunity presented itself to be a part of a 12 hour race. I immediately jumped on that idea, even more so because we will be doing something that could help people in the future, hopefully. We will be raising funds for Race Against Dementia charity, set up by Sir Jackie Stewart, and that was the fact that made me want to be a part of the event even more. Also, take a look at the video in which Théa explains the decision on why and how she decided to organize the race and raise funds for this specific charity, and some more details about the race itself.

For those of you that don’t know who Sir Jackie Stewart is, he is a triple Formula 1 World Champion, among other things, and a founder of the charity now as well. In the past, I’ve only heard about him in regards to Formula 1, but while doing my research for this post, I found out so much more about him. The reason behind setting up Race Against Dementia was his wife, or rather her being diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. There are lots of different subtypes of dementia, depending on what the actual cause behind it is.

“Dementia manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surface when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments to memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively impact a person’s ability to function and carry out everyday activities. Aside from memory impairment and a disruption in thought patterns, the most common symptoms include emotional problems, difficulties with language, and decreased motivation. Dementia is not a disorder of consciousness, and consciousness is not usually affected.” (source: Wikipedia)

“Race Against Dementia raises and allocates funds to accelerate global research and development in the race to find a prevention or treatment for dementia. Our vision is a breakthrough in the prevention or treatment of dementia with the greatest of urgency.” This is a quote from the charity’s website about what they are trying to achieve. You can check their website here, check what else they are involved in, and how you can donate.

Apart from donating through the official website, there’s also a possibility of donating funds through Théa’s Just Giving page, or my even my own page as I have joined Théa’s team, where you can also follow how much it has already been raised, and there’s also a nice goal set up for all of us to reach. I’m sure once we go racing on Saturday, we will not only reach that goal (of £1000), but also go way past it and raise a lot more money!

The race itself will take part on Saturday, 22nd May, starting at 13:00 CEST (12:00 BST), which means most of us will be awake quite long into the night as well. As mentioned before, it is going to be a 12 hour long race, where the most important thing is going to be raising money for the charity, raising awareness about dementia and just having fun while racing other people.

So, to conclude this post, I really believe we can do so much if we all just stand together. At this point in time, there’s no cure for dementia, unfortunately, but with our help, someone might be able to find a cure for it in the future. Dementia really takes its toll on the person suffering from it, as well as their whole family. Join us in a few days for the race, donate some money (if you can, of course), and let’s hope very few of us will have to battle dementia in our lifetimes, one way or another.