Mace raises funds for Dementia project of Alzheimer’s Research UK
In support of Alzheimer’s Research UK, Mace's charity of the year, the engineering consultancy held a 'Go Orange' day. The day, in which its employees were encouraged to wear orange to raise awareness of the effects of dementia on a healthy brain, raised £13,000 for the charity. The funds join a further £25,000 donated by the Mace Foundation to the charity, which together goes towards supporting the translation of health information into a range of languages for those whose first language is not English.
The UK has around 850,000 people living with dementia, which is set to increase to more than a million by 2025 and 2 million by 2051, in line with an ageing population and an increasing life expectancy. The disease is extensively debilitating, particularly at later stages – creating considerably suffering and loss of self-sufficiency for those with the disease, as well as impacting the wider social bonds of those affected. As it stands there is no cure for the condition, with Alzheimer the prevalent form, while costs continue to increase – as of 2015, reaching £26 billion a year in the UK.
As part of its corporate social responsibility programme, Mace, an engineering and consulting firm, recently announced that its staff have picked Alzheimer’s Research UK as its charity of the year. Alzheimer’s Research UK is a charity, founded in 1992, focused on developing treatments, and even a cure, for the condition. The charity runs various research initiatives that focus on prevention, treatment and cure. The organisation, which is entirely funded by non-governmental donations, has supported more than 127 research projects across the UK with funding in excess of £40 million.
Go Orange campaign
One of the initiatives organised under the year long programme, is the ‘Go Orange’ campaign, which asked Mace's employees across the world to spread awareness and combat misconceptions about dementia, by wearing orange. The colour orange is a reference to the amount of weight the brain of someone with dementia loses during the course of the disease.
The firm’s efforts, from its ‘Go Orange’ day, have thus far raised more than £13,000 for the charity. The donations are in addition to the £25,000 that the firm’s not-for-profit arm, the Mace Foundation, has already given to the campaign. The donations will go towards the Alzheimer’s Research’s Translating Dementia project, which support people across the UK whose native language is not English to better understand the health information provided by the charity to support prevention and care. The firm will continue to run programmes throughout the year to support the charity and its work.
Regarding the ‘Go Orange’ campaign, Mike Hanson, Mace Foundation CEO, said, “Orange is not a colour we see very often in the office, so we were pleased so many people got involved. We wanted to highlight the #sharetheorange campaign when we launched our partnership as a simple way of helping our employees understand how important this cause is. We’ve got lots planned for the year, including a skydive-day and a running challenge, so we’re excited to see how much we can raise.”
Jade Rolph, Corporate Partnerships Account Manager at Alzheimer’s Research UK, remarked that the charity is “delighted” to see so many employees at Mace take up the challenge and 'go orange' for the day. He added, “We hope this has given everyone at Mace the encouragement to go out and fundraise for Alzheimer’s Research UK. Without the support of our corporate partners, we would not be able to fund world-class dementia research, so we would like to say a massive thank you to Mace for their ongoing support and we can’t wait to see what they get up to over the coming months.”
