TWO Winsford brothers whose granddad is living with an aggressive form of dementia are planning to run the equivalent of a marathon over the month of May in his name.
In 2024, Zach Oleszczuk and Liam Doyle's grandad, James Doyle, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, which progresses rapidly and affects behaviour, language, and movement.
This is the same form of the disease suffered by Hollywood actor, Bruce Willis, and sadly, it can neither be medicated nor slowed down.
Before he retired, James had a high-powered job as a director at multi-national construction company, Carillion.
Shortly after his retirement, Covid hit, and the now 71-year-old, who is single, was quite cut off from the world.
James' son, Craig Doyle, who is Liam's dad and Zach's step-dad, said James started to become quite withdrawn around this time, which the family put down to going from a busy job to retirement, plus the Covid isolation.
He added: "We thought he was a bit depressed, having gone from this big job to no job at all, and then not being able to leave the house.
"But this can also be a symptom of dementia.
"Then we started to notice he was repeating himself a lot, and even forgetting basic words.
"Then we noticed he was struggling to remember very basic things. For example, he didn’t know what patio slabs were.
"He called them pizzas.
"And he couldn’t remember what a bunker on a golf course was called.
"It was all these little things."
Last year, Craig did a wing walk to raise money for Dementia UK, but now Liam and Zach feel it is their turn.
Zach, a student at Weaverham High School, and Liam, who attends South Wirral High in Bebbington, are completing their marathon by running 26.2 miles spread out over May, covering a couple of miles each day.
You can visit their JustGiving page by following this link.
Craig added: "I was out walking the dog with Zach recently and then out of the blue, he said he wanted to raise some money for the charity I had.
"I said I thought this was a nice idea.
"We started bouncing ideas off each other and came up with a marathon over the month of May.
"They will be running some of it separately because Zach lives with me in Winsford, and Liam lives on the Wirral.
"But Liam is here about 10 days a month, so there will be plenty of opportunities for them to head out together."
The brothers appeared on Radio Northwich’s Breakfast Show with John Thompson on Thursday, April 9, to talk about their fundraising efforts.
Frontotemporal dementia It is one of the less common types of the disease and particularly affects younger people, typically those between the ages of 45 and 65.
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