(Stop Press: Pat Cadigan, author of Ceci.. says it was a person named Steve Glover who coined the phrase. No further information.)
It caught my eye, I hope it catches yours. BoingBoing is huge, Gritinthegears is a speck of dust but maybe.... just maybe... my blogging visitors might pick up and re-use that title, and spread this idea.
Terry Pratchett, he of Discworld fame, prolific writer, creative soul, persistent advocate for orangutans, announced that he was giving a million dollars, or five hundred thousand pounds to The Alzheimers Research Trust . He recently announced he had been diagnosed with Alzheimers disease, and had been stunned to find out how little official funding is given to this illness, compared with, say, cancer, or heart disease.
Pat Cadigan of Ceci N'est.... said "Hearing that, it occurred to me that if half a million of us all donated a pound to Alzheimer's research, we could match his donation and make it an even million.
So whaddaya say, guys? It's a pound. That's about 2 bucks US dollars, give or take a couple of (US) pennies. You can spare that much. Go here and make your donation. Tell them it's in honour of Terry Pratchett."
I'm not myself an avid reader of Discworld novels, I confess. The first one I read was "Truckers", and I loved it, but for some reason I never really could be bothered with the discworld series.
But every time I've seen Terry Pratchett interviewed, or read articles, or seen him in a documentary, meeting Orangutans in the forests of Borneo, I've warmed to him as a person.
All of us, however, know people who have lost family members to Alzheimers disease, and have seen people struggling with loss of their own minds.
Maybe I'll write more about that one day.
We can't fix everything. We can't fight everything. But here's a little something, and it's easy. Why not give a pound.. or two Dollars, to aid Alzheimers research.
Here's the link again: Here. Tell them its to "Match it for Pratchett".
The link I gave is in the U.K., but you could just give to a research trust in your home country if you preferred. And feel free to link, or blog using the same title.
STOP PRESS! There's now an official site!
http://www.matchitforpratchett.org/
created and administered by Chris Tregenza.
Here's an extract of the latest figures.
"Summary of Accounts as of 19/3/2008 at 15:10"
Donations via MatchItForPratchett.org: $3382
T-Shirt sales (Completed and Pending): $590
Costs (Paypal Charges): $-150.22
Total Raised via MatchItForPratchett.org: $3821.78
"Doing well! Please visit there and show your support...
Don't forget to BUY THE T-SHIRT!!!!
