Posted under Blog on February 1st, 2013 by Editorial Team / No Comments

Gerry Anderson, the celebrated television producer and director, best known for the much-loved TV show Thunderbirds, sadly passed away on Boxing Day last year, at the age of 83. He had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2011.

Before his death, Anderson decided to donate his brain for medical research after realising that current treatments for Alzheimer’s were having little effect.  Following lengthy discussions, his determination was clear to his son, Jamie, who then contacted the Alzheimer’s Society and was put in contact with the team behind the Brains for Dementia Research project. 

Unfortunately, brain function is too complex to replicate in the laboratory and, despite dementia being relatively common, there is a huge shortage of brain tissue available for research. This is why Brains for Dementia Research aims to promote brain donation and establish a network of brain banks.

These brain banks monitor the memory, cognition and behaviour of volunteers until they die, when the researchers can then study their brains in detail. The initiative is funded jointly by the Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK.  To be successful, it requires people with dementia as well as those without to consider making this valuable donation. 

It is these generous donations that allow vital research into Alzheimer’s to continue and for potential treatments to be developed.  So we applaud Gerry Anderson, who is quoted as saying: “The quicker they can find a cure the better, so they are welcome to my brain.”

Read more on this story in the Daily Mail. 

Tags: Alzheimer's, Brains for Dementia Research, Thunderbirds