When Sammy was born back in 1974 it was not expected that she would have a very long life as the average life expectancy for a person with Down's syndrome then was around twenty-five years. That is however changing as people with Down's syndrome are now living into their sixties and beyond.
As people with Down's syndrome grow older though there is a heightened risk of a person with the condition developing Alzheimer's disease at an earlier age than is usually seen in the general population. I'm glad to say however that there is ongoing research into why this may happen with the aim to finding ways of delaying or ideally preventing it from happening.
I'm not going to even try and explain to you the science behind this when there are others who really know what they are talking about. So what I am going to do is put this link in here for https://youtu.be/pB7iqWUXQlM that can be copied and pasted into the search bar on YouTube and will take you to a video called Together. This video is well worth a watch as it explains the what, whys and wherefores that I don't fully understand.
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| Having an MRI brain imaging scan |
What I do know though is that I am extremely proud of Sammy and all the other adults with Down's syndrome that have been willing to take part in this vitally important research that will hopefully benefit others if not themselves.
Apart from one trip to London for eye scans all of the research that Sammy has been involved in has been in Cambridge as, if I've got this right, the research is being led by Cambridge University but working in collaboration with international links on some of the projects. I know that with the longitudinal study that she has been involved in blood draws have been part of this with these needing to be sent to the United States as this is a joint project.
Sammy has been involved for a number of years now and taken part in a few projects that have included brain imaging scans, cap scans, eye scans, blood draws and varying quizzes and puzzles ooh and loads and loads of questions for me. Rather than me try to explain all this and the different projects that all have the same aim of trying To Defeat Dementia in Down's syndrome, what I am going to do is pop on a few photos of Sammy actively involved in the research projects and put a link to the Cambridge Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Group (CIDDRG) as that's the place to go if you want more information.
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| Taking part in an eye study |
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| waiting patiently during preparation for a brain imaging scan |
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| Time for games and puzzles and preparing for a cap scan |
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| Taking some time out to explore Cambridge |
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| Statement and photos by the Cambridge Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Group |
More information about this research can be found at www.psychiatry.cam.ac.uk
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