BEFORE filming the recent BBC production 'Our Friends in the North,' I spent some time researching my role as an Alzheimer's sufferer by visiting a nursing home for patients with dementia.

This moving experience taught me the distress caused by the effects of this devastating illness.

The gradual loss of memory and reason, the inability to recognise loved ones, the sudden outbursts of uncharacteristic violence and the total destruction of normal function must rate Alzheimer's as one of the most harrowing diseases known to man. I was shocked to learn that Alzheimer's is the single most common disease in Britain today, with more than 600,000 sufferers. The cost of caring for Alzheimer's patients is estimated at £1.5 billion to the NHS alone and the emotional cost to carers is inestimable.

It is vital we endeavour to find solutions to this terrible disease by investing more in scientific research and this is why I am lending my wholehearted support to the Alzheimer's Research Trust.

If your readers would like to learn more about the Trust's work, they can be contacted at Alzheimer's Research Trust, GJ Livanos House, Granhams Road, Cambridge CB2 5LQ.

PETER VAUGHAN, Bristol Old Vic, King Street, Bristol.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.