Alzheimer’s is the chosen charity of Ambassador and Podcast friend James Buttler (@cricket_badger) and is a disease we are unfortunately more than aware of : Sandra lost her father to it nearly twenty years ago, her mother has vascular dementia and Chris’s mother has early stage Alzheimer’s, so it was with interest that we read about Runs4Research (@Runs4Research), and a pleasure to promote their Just Giving Page.
For those that like a bit of merchandise they have an online store or maybe you fancy buying a wristband to support them.
About Runs4Research
“I lost my grandad at the back end of 2020 having suffered with Dementia for the last 5 or so years of his life (fully appreciate many have been living with this horrific disease for much longer). I had been contemplating doing something to raise some money for research towards battling it.
Some of my fondest memories with him were associated with our mutual love of Cricket (also involving my dad and sister) and therefore this became the starting point for the idea of Runs4Research. Playing club cricket regularly, my idea was that local cricketers commit to a donation at the end of the season based on how may runs they score or wickets they take during that season.
These amounts would be minimal (5p per run, 50p per wicket) but across the season would accumulate to a donation that feels substantial enough come September but not so significant that they feel unduly out of pocket (despite the good cause).
Our initiative went live ahead of the 2021 season with a target to get 100 players involved, raising £1,000 and remarkably, this was hit for 6 (apologies for the terrible pun). The finalised totals following the season saw 257 club cricketers signup donating just short of £6,000 which is incredible to think about, even now.
For such a seemingly simple idea, the potential for this to grow even larger in 2022 is so exciting to think about so I urge everyone reading this, get involved and continue to share our idea.”