Legal & General is supporting the launch of Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK) second #ShareTheOrange campaign which seeks to raise awareness of dementia and the ground breaking research that is being undertaken to help defeat it.
Over 850,000 people in the UK are living with dementia and one in three over the age of 65 will die of the disease.
Legal & General has been working with ARUK since 2015 when they helped fund the project ‘Dementia Explained’ which was the development of a website designed to help children and young people who were living with a parent or relative suffering from dementia understand what it is and how it affects the brain. Last year they funded ‘A walk through dementia’, a virtual reality app which helps the user experience and understand the very complex and frightening symptoms that those who suffer from dementia have to face. The app which gives a first person insight into these battles is now being developed for use by health care professionals.
#ShareTheOrange first launched in 2016 on the back of research that suggested that there was a need for a simple symbol that captured the essence of dementia in a way that everyone could understand.
Two years on, Legal & General is funding a new film for the campaign created by Aardman Animations and starring Bryan Cranston the actor, writer, producer and director. The campaign confronts misunderstanding around dementia – using nothing more than an orange. Cranston, who lost his mother Audrey ‘Peggy’ Sell to Alzheimer’s disease in 2004, is supporting the latest chapter in the charity’s award-winning #ShareTheOrange campaign.
The campaign urges viewers to share a short film on their social media channels to help get people thinking differently about dementia and challenge the enduring misconception that the condition is simply a by-product of age. A recent YouGov survey commissioned by Alzheimer’s Research UK revealed that, when asked what they think dementia is and who it affects, just one in four (23%) British adults specifically mentioned brain disease or degeneration.
At the centre of the two-minute film, which uses a blend of film, stop-motion and CGI animation, is an orange that gradually strips away to demonstrate how the diseases that cause dementia, most commonly Alzheimer’s, physically attack the brain. The emotive, also follows the journey of a person’s life and shows the impact dementia can have on them, their memories, relationships and loved-ones.
Nigel Wilson, CEO of Legal & General, said: “I hope this #ShareTheOrange campaign has the profound impact it deserves to have. We have seen this with Cancer and AIDS, this incredible public recognition leads to better outcomes for Society. We have worked with ARUK on a number of initiatives in recent years to raise awareness about this devastating disease and the impact it can have on individuals and their families.”
