Terry Pratchett donates $1 million to Alzheimer's, more Colour of Magic promos

Match It For Pratchett: Donate 1 pound to Alzheimer’s research

16 March 2008  Comment!

Pat Cadigan started an online campaign (dubbed “Match it for Pratchett” by participants) on her blog to get half a million Discworld fans to each donate a pound (that’s about two dollars in U.S. currency) to Alzheimer’s research, thus matching the half-million pounds/a million dollars donation Terry Pratchett made yesterday to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust in the U.K. Cadigan says on her blog, “So whaddaya say, guys? … You can spare that much. Go here and make your donation. Tell them it’s in honour of Terry Pratchett.”

Edit: The Match It For Pratchett site, www.matchitforpratchett.org, has been set up for more information. A Facebook page has also been set up by the originator of the initiative, which includes a letter from the Alzheimer’s Research Trust.

Buy the Luggage, support Alzheimer’s research

A charity auction on eBay is in process to support the Alzheimer’s Research Trust. Terry Pratchett and the Colour of Magic crew worked together to provide this “unique opportunity” to own the only replica of the Luggage used in producing The Colour of Magic adaptation. To quote the item description:

A unique opportunity to own a one-off replica of the luggage as featured in Sky One’s adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic. This quirky ‘suitcase’ is filled with the full library of Discworld novels, plus the production designs used to build the luggage as seen in the film. Both the books and the designs have been signed by Terry Pratchett.

Also included in this money can’t buy piece of memorabilia is a copy of the Discworld 25th anniversary edition of The Colour of Magic which hits book store shelves on the 10th March. This brand spanking new reissue not only features the stars of Sky One’s magical adaptation, Sir David Jason and Sean Astin, on the front cover, but the two actors have also signed the novel.

Fifteen bidders have bid the price up to £2,000.00.  The auction ends on March 24.

More Colour of Magic official site updates: “Tourist Guides” and more!

The official Colour of Magic site from Sky has been updated to include more fun descriptions of the creatures, characters, and places of Discworld. In the Video section, four out of eight “Tourist Guides,” hosted by the Librarian of the Unseen University and a goofy assistant have been uploaded. The videos include glimpses of the Rimfall and Wyrmberg, the dragon-filled, upside-down mountain. You can watch them to see a small clip of Twoflower using his phrase book to speak with a bemused Broadman, an odd interaction between Rincewind and Twoflower, and a particularly creepy speech from Trymon.  Watch the slightly nutty videos to learn about Discworld’s geography, wizards, cuisine, inhabitants, religions, plants, and entertainment.

Four out of seven “Behind the Magic” videos are also on the site, where you can hear Sir David Jason and Sean Astin speak about The Colour of Magic.

You can visit the official Colour of Magic site for wallpapers, interviews, trailer, production notes, and more goodies.

Terry Pratchett donates $1 million to Alzheimer’s research

Many news sources are reporting today that Terry Pratchett has donated $1 million to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, deploring the lack of funding for research and support for those affected by the disease. Funding per cancer patient is £289, compared to the £11 spent per Alzheimer’s research. (That’s more than 25 times more per patient.)

Chief Executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust Rebecca Wood said, “Terry’s generous donation will fund promising UK research which hopes to find ways to slow down or halt the disease. The reality is that [now] we are scraping for every penny and have to turn down two out of every three research projects.”

“There is a kind of heroic glamour about the battle against cancer. We use the language ‘the battlefield,’ or there is a battle, whereas frankly with Alzheimer’s it is a lot of skirmishing … I don’t think any cure is going to be discovered in my lifetime… but I think there might be a regime, some combination of lifestyle and drugs which helps people live with Alzheimer’s,” the AFP quotes Terry Pratchett as saying.

The TimesOnline reports that Terry Pratchett described Alzheimer’s as “[stripping] away your living self a bit at a time” and “a nasty disease, surrounded by shadows and small, largely unseen tragedies.”

“Part of me lives in a world of new age remedies and science, and some of the science is a little like voodoo, but science was never an exact science, and personally I’d eat the arse out of a dead mole if it offered a fighting chance.”

“There’s nearly as many of us as there are cancer sufferers, and it looks as if the number of people with the disease will double within a generation … It’s a shock and a shame to find out that money for [Alzheimer’s] research is 3 per cent of that which goes to find cancer cures. Perhaps that is why, for example, I know three people who have successfully survived brain tumours but no one who has beaten Alzheimer’s.”

“I’d like a chance to die like my father did – of cancer, at 86 . . . Before he went to spend his last two weeks in a hospice he was bustling around the house, fixing things. He talked to us right up to the last few days, knowing who we were and who he was.”

“I want to go on writing. You can’t write books when you are dead, unless your name is L. Ron Hubbard.”

The press release can be seen on PJSMprints.com, and you can read Terry Pratchett’s full speech at the Alzheimer’s Research Trust conference in Watershed, Bristol this morning, Thursday, March 13th.