In Eric's memory

for the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease. STEPHEN LEWIS finds out why.

OVER the mantelpiece of the sitting room in the home Sarah Brownbridge shares with her partner David Rose, there is a photograph of her father Eric. This is the way she likes to think of him. The picture was taken in the late Forties, when her father had been demobbed from the Royal Artillery. He is sitting on a Rudge motorcycle with his brother perched on the back.

He is young and vital, brimming with health and energy. He had great legs, Sarah comments fondly, as she lifts the picture down to show me.

Sarah wasn't born when the photograph was taken. The father she remembers was a warm, kindly person for whom no one ever had a bad word - a man devoted to his four daughters. "He was a lovely man," she says. "A very kind man, and very well respected.

"He was always fit and healthy. He hardly ever went to the doctors. The only time I remember him going was when he put his foot in a shoe and there was a hornet in there and it stung him!"

Until eight years ago, that was. Then, Sarah and the rest of her family began to notice he was becoming forgetful. "It was just tiny things," she says. "He would forget things and get a bit confused."

At first, it was put down to age - Mr Brownbridge was in his early 70s by then. But his condition gradually worsened and eventually he was diagnosed as suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.

He was never told but for the family this was devastating news. "He knew something was wrong," admits Sarah. "He would say, 'I should be able to remember that.' But we never told him what it was. I got a lot of information about the disease, and I remember thinking, I can't show that to my mum. When you look at it in black and white and know what to expect, it is very, very frightening."

Over the next few years, her father gradually became worse. He enjoyed walking to the newsagent every morning to buy a newspaper. Eventually, he had to carry a piece of paper with his name on in his pocket, in case he became lost.

He'd always loved reading, but eventually he had to give up. "He had great difficulty in concentrating on anything," Sarah recalls. "His concentration had just gone."

Towards the end, his family weren't even sure whether he even recognised them.

"It got to the stage where he knew he had four daughters, and I think he knew that we were his daughters, but he couldn't always remember our names when we went around," Sarah says. "Sometimes, when I was looking at him, I used to think it must be the loneliest thing in the world, when you're so confused and don't know the things around you. It must be very frightening."

As their father's condition worsened, Sarah and her sisters worried whether their mother, Mary, would be able to continue looking after him.

"I really worried about my mum, whether she would be able to cope," Sarah says. "We didn't want to put him into hospital. He was a very proud man, a very independent man."

The end came quickly. Sarah's father suffered a mild stroke - and then, last year, a massive heart attack. He died at home, in bed.

In a sense, it was a relief. "He had been released from something that he knew was happening to him and didn't understand," Sarah says. "And at least he hadn't got to the stage where he was incontinent. He was still able to shave himself and things like that.

"I do feel guilty sometimes, because I would sometimes hope my father would die before he got to the final stages of the disease. Now that he's gone, I really miss him. But at least he never lost his dignity."

Her father, Sarah admits, was fortunate in that at least he had family to look after him. Many older people are not so lucky.

Now, Sarah is determined to try to do something for other sufferers.

She and David, who run York's Blue Bicycle restaurant, aim to raise as much money as possible to help pay for earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer's and improved treatment, care and support.

Fundraising begins this week, with the Blue Bicycle Zebra Stakes - third race of the day at York Races on Friday. David reckons invited guests could contribute about £2,000 to the Alzheimer's Society.

But that's just for starters. The Blue Bicycle is preparing its first recipe book, a lavish coffee-table affair with colour pictures featuring recipes for the restaurant's most popular dishes. The recipes will be chosen by David himself and his head chef, Kenny Noble. The couple hope to entice a big-name Hollywood scriptwriter to help write the book and David plans to enlist a top name from the music business to endorse the book and write an introduction.

Every penny raised will go towards Alzheimer's, he says, with the Blue Bicycle paying for publication.

The aim is to produce the book in time for the Christmas market next year and the hope is to raise at least £25,000.

With early diagnosis, new drugs and proper care and support, progress of the disease can be slowed, Sarah believes.

"If we can do something, there may be people who can get another couple of years of good quality life," she says. "If we had realised a couple of years sooner what was wrong with my dad, he may have had a bit longer."

Fact File:

Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, responsible for more than half of the UK's 670,000 cases. It is mainly a disease of older people, but can affect those as young as 30 or 40.

The disease attacks brain cells, nerves and transmitters, disrupting a chemical messenger and causing nerve ends and cells to die. Eventually the brain shrinks as gaps develop.

Symptoms typically begin with lapses in memory and confusion. As the disease progresses, sufferers may undergo personality changes and could also suffer from mood swings. In advanced cases, they may begin to adopt unsettling or inappropriate behaviour. Ultimately, the personality disintegrates and the sufferer becomes totally dependent or bed-bound.

There is at present no cure: but the announcement last week that scientists are developing a potential vaccine, which is undergoing early clinical trials, holds out a ray of hope.

Many relatives are angry at the 'postcode lottery' which means patients in some areas of the country can receive the Alzheimer's drug Aricept - which may slow down progress of the disease - on the NHS while those in other areas cannot.

A Northampton couple won the right to receive Aricept free after Northampton Healthcare Trust issued new guidelines following widespread publicity of their case.

Sarah Brownbridge paid for Aricept for her father and believes it gave him "another two years" without serious deterioration. "It should be widely available in all areas," she says.

- To make donations to the Blue Bicycle's Alzheimer's fund, all of which will go to the Alzheimer's Society, call Sarah on 07974 695393. Alternatively, call the Alzheimer's Society's York branch directly on 01904 430020.

- For more information about the disease, check out the society's website at www.alzheimers.org.uk or call the society on the above number.