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Research into Alzheimer’s disease has received a fillip from two UWA benefactors who say they are at the age when the problem is rife.

Ron and Peggy Bell will donate $100,000 over the next three years to fund a Research Fellow undertaking studies into Alzheimer’s.

The focus will be on the interaction between learning capacity of people with mild Alzheimer’s disease and genetic factors associated with memory and dementia risk.

Ms Mandy Vidovich has been appointed the inaugural Research Fellow.

Mr Bell said he and his wife Peggy decided to donate the money for the Bell Research Fellowship for Health and Ageing to accelerate research into Alzheimer’s.

“We are in our 80s now ourselves and we are very conscious of people our age having their mental faculties deteriorating,” he said. “We have had friends who have had very bad results from that.

“And also there doesn’t seem to be enough research or understanding of the problem.”

Alzheimer’s Australia estimates there are at least 227,300 people with dementia in Australia and this is expected to more than treble to about 731,000 by 2050 unless there is a medical breakthrough.

The Bells established their own charity foundation, the Ron and Peggy Bell Family Legacy, about six years ago and it is from the Legacy that the funds for the Research Fellowship will be drawn.

Through the Legacy, they have also donated $100,000 to support medical services for an Indian village called Kandili, two hours from Bangalore.

Mr Bell visited the village recently for two weeks to see the fruits of their funding.

“We actually have a medical centre there which we staff with local people but two or three times a year we send a team of doctors and nurses there to give more detailed medical help,” he said. “We pay for the operations and other things that are required.”

In fact, it was a chance conversation with one of the GP volunteers from WA that led to Mr Bell being put in touch with the Faculty, after he mentioned he was interested in helping fund research into Alzheimer’s.

Mr Bell said he had enjoyed a varied life, with careers ranging from accountancy to cattle farming and commercial property investment.

“I always had this idea I would leave a big legacy in my will,” he said. “But I got to thinking I had a direct interest myself so
we got the idea we wouldn’t wait until we died, because we were a bit slow about doing that, so we created the Foundation.”

The Bells have five children, three of whom are UWA graduates. One of their granddaughters is in her third year of study at the University.

The Bell Research Fellowship for Health and Ageing will be supplemented by the WA Centre for Health and Ageing (WACHA), which appointed Ms Vidovich.
WACHA has the impressive track record of having raised $11 million in research funding over the last five years and currently holds 20 research grants.

WACHA Director, Professor Leon Flicker, and Research Director, Professor Osvaldo Almeida, and their colleagues are busy piecing together the puzzle that is dementia. Growing old is the most powerful risk factor for the development of dementia but other probable risk factors, common to heart disease, include mid-life high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol and lack of exercise. In addition, depression, low education, limited ongoing intellectual stimulation, limited social connectedness and severe head injury are potential risk factors.

Additionally, there are some genetic factors that may predispose people to developing the common forms of dementia in old age. The role hat genetic factors play in dementia is the area that Ms Vidovich will pursue.

Ms Vidovich, who is a clinical neuropsychologist at WACHA, she said a concerted effort was needed to help Australia’s ageing population avoid the burden of cognitive dysfunction.

“As the population ages, the risk of dementia increases and presently there are no cures,” she said. “The financial gift from Mr and Mrs Bell will be put to good use to explore practical ways to change this.”

-By Cathy Saunders