Match it for Pratchett

Here’s a slightly off-topic announcement for you. I’m assuming that you all love to read, and that many of you love sci-fi and fantasy books as well. Well, Terry Pratchett (author of the Discworld books) recently came forward with the announcement that he has Alzheimer’s. He’s donated approximately a million dollars to Alzheimer’s research and his fans are trying to match that. They’ve only been collecting for something like four days and are up to about $70,00 (35,000 British pounds) … So!

I have a special hatred of Alzheimer’s, since it’s what (finally) killed my grandfather back in 1967, before they really knew what Alzheimer’s was. My grandmother took care of him until the end–and she luckily had great neighbors and relatives who helped out–but it was enormously difficult. On the rare occasions Dad mentions it, he’ll say that my grandfather almost took her with him, it was so incredibly hard. So, yes, I’m definitely supporting this one, for the grandfather I never got a chance to know.

You can donate to the Match it for Pratchett site or to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust directly. Oh, and there are t-shirts, too. Whether you ever read the man’s books or not, it’s a good cause, folks. Or even just promote it on your own blog to spread the word. Do you know that they’re predicting that 18% of all baby boomers will develop this disease? That’s one in five people out of an entire generation. Talk about scary. Match it for Pratchett!