Dementia advocate Mick Simpson has completed his massive 190km walk from the Kyabram Memorial Gardens to the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne to raise awareness for dementia.
The walk from Kyabram via Seymour and on to Melbourne took him nine days and he raised more than $5200 for Dementia Australia in the process.
He met Victorian Nationals leader Peter Walsh and deputy leader Steph Ryan in Melbourne.
“We haven’t been walking the whole day, every day, but we got a bit quick there at one stage,” Mr Simpson said.
“The weather wasn’t too bad, it did get a bit cold but the team around me did a wonderful job.
“The whole campaign this year has been a team effort; it’s not just me, I’m just the man in front.”
Mr Simpson said one of the main reasons for walking was to get more funding for research into dementia.
“Dementia has personally impacted me in the loss of friends’ and family’s faces,” he said.
“Memory loss as far as I can’t remember the start, I can’t remember some of the days we’ve walked.”
Almost 500,000 people are living with dementia in Australia according to figures from Dementia Australia. That number is expected to rise to more than a million in the next 20 years.
The toll of this increase is set to be significant, as data shows that dementia is the second leading cause of death in Australia and the leading cause of death for women.
“We used to fob it off as an old person’s disease, but it’s starting to get to the stage where it’s frightening — from 20 years of age up, now,” Mr Simpson said.
“The professionals can’t tell us why this is yet, but hopefully with more awareness and funding they can.”
Mr Simpson said all governments at both federal and state level needed to act on dementia.
He said enough could not be done for the cause.
“If it takes another walk next year then it’s gotta be done to get it out there to the people,” he said.
To donate to Mr Simpson’s Walk for Dementia, head to fundraising.dementia.org.au/fundraisers/micksimpson
All donations raised will go towards dementia research.