Frequently Asked Questions

Give Five is a brand new virtual challenge from Alzheimer's Research UK in support of our new Think Brain Health campaign.

What’s good for your heart is good for your brain, and you probably know that cutting out smoking, being physically active and eating a balanced diet will help lower your risk of heart disease - but very few people realise you’ll be helping reduce your risk of dementia too.

We're challenging you to complete a five-day activity streak for five weeks in a row to get your blood pumping, so your body and brain feel the benefit.

Whether you go for a thirty-minute walk five times a week, take on the challenge as five weekly bike rides, or do a mix of your five favourite activities (such as yoga or workout classes), this is your chance to sign up to a challenge that suits you, and ultimately take care of your brain at the same time.

Give Five runs from 15 February to 18 April, and you choose which five weeks you'll complete. Ask your friends, family and colleagues to give £5 to support your amazing efforts - why not ask for £5 for every week you complete, or £5 for each different exercise you do? If you asked just four people to sponsor you £5 per week, you'd raise an incredible £100!

The money you raise will help us spread the word about the benefits of good brain health and fund more research into dementia and ways in which we may be able to prevent it in the future.

Thanks to our partners Garmin and parkrun for their support of the Give Five challenge.

1. Register to take part in Give Five.

2. Follow the steps to create a Give Five JustGiving page, where people can view your progress and sponsor you.

3. Raise £100 - and if you hit £200 email us at sportingevents@alzheimersresearchuk.org to get your free t-shirt (remember to include your size and your address!)

4. Print out and fill out your five-week activity calendar.

5. Make sure you track or log every activity you do, so you can count it towards your total.

6. Get going! If you're looking for inspiration and motivation during your challenge, check out our #TeamARUK Give Five Facebook page, or get in touch to tell us your own story!

7. Check your progress on the leaderboards and see how you or your team compare!

1. Register to take part in Give Five.
2. Follow the steps to create a Give Five JustGiving page, where people can view your progress and sponsor you.
3. Raise £100 - and if you hit £200 email us at sportingevents@alzheimersresearchuk.org to get your free t-shirt - remember to include your size and your address!
4. Print out and fill out your five-week activity calendar to stay on top of your activity!
5. Get going! If you're looking for inspiration and motivation during your challenge, check out our #TeamARUK Give Five Facebook page, or get in touch to tell us your own story!

You can do your challenge as a mix of whichever activities you like! You can make it a complete mix of walking, cycling, yoga, pilates, running, rowing, boxing, HIIT - the list goes on!

The aim is to make time for 30 minutes of heart-pumping activity a day for five days in a row each week.

If you raise £200 or more you're entitled to a free t-shirt to celebrate your effort! Just email sportingevents@alzheimersresearchuk.org with your size and address and we'll send your t-shirt out to you as thanks for your amazing achievement! (Sizes available: S-XXL Adult Unisex and XS (age 2-4), S (6-8), M (10-12), L (14-16) for children)

Yes! You can change your activities weekly or daily, or stick to one activity for the whole challenge - it's totally up to you. If you'd like to talk through your ideas feel free to get in touch with a member of our team.

Yes! A team can be anyone you like: friends, family, work colleagues, a club you belong to. When you register you can create a team or join one if it’s already been set up. If you’re in charge of setting up the team, follow these simple steps:

1. Create a name for your team while you’re registering.

2. Once you’ve finished your registration and have set up your own team page, use the “Invite Members” button on your team page to send email invitations.

3. If someone else has set up the team, just search for the team name when you’re registering and you’ll be automatically connected once you complete your registration.

When you sign up to Give Five a JustGiving fundraising page will be automatically set up for you with a target of £100 (but you can increase this if you like!) Our Top three fundraisers at the end of the challenge will receive a Garmin Venu Sq device.

To make the most of your page, we recommend you:

1. Add a photo – so everyone can see your face!
2. Set a target – pages with targets raise more money.
3. Complete the ‘About me’ section – tell people why you’re challenging yourself for Alzheimer’s Research UK.
4. Share your page – as far and as wide as you can using email and social media.
5. Update – keep updating your page and sharing it throughout your challenge.

Your brain is the most complex thing in the universe. Billions of cells working together to control emotions, store memories, manage movement and speech.

But many of us take our brains for granted.

Just as we can protect other areas of our health, we can take steps to keep our brains healthy – and reduce our risk of developing dementia.

Think Brain Health is an ongoing celebration of everything our amazing brains do for us - and a guide to the simple changes we can make to protect them in return.

If you're interested in finding out more about Think Brain Health, you can test your brain health knowledge with a quiz as well as learning more through expert blogs and articles at: thinkbrainhealth.org.uk.

Through research, we’ve learnt a lot about the different risk factors for dementia (the things that increase our likelihood of developing the condition.)

Some of these, like our age and genetics, can’t be changed. But the latest evidence suggests that up to 40% of all cases are linked to factors we may be able to influence ourselves – often through making relatively simple changes to the way we live.

Find our three simple rules for how you can help look after your brain at thinkbrainhealth.org.uk

The money raised from Give Five will support Alzheimer's Research UK's world class research, including treatments, preventions and ultimately a cure for the diseases that cause dementia.

Your donations will help pay for state-of-the-art equipment and will fund research at every level, from PhD Studentships to Major Projects. The money raised during Give Five may also contribute towards one of our big research initiatives or awareness campaigns.

You can find out more about our promise to you here.

JustGiving is the platform that's the home of our Give Five website and fundraising pages. We've been working with JustGiving for a number of years on our virtual events.

We're pleased to announce that Garmin has become the official sponsor of our sporting events for the next three years, which also includes Give Five. We will work together to help reduce people’s risk of developing dementia by encouraging them to make positive lifestyle changes. Garmin are also providing each of the top three fundraisers at the end of the challenge with a Garmin Venu Sq device, as well as a weekly prize for taking part in the #GarminGiveFive challenge!

The #GarminGiveFive challenge asks you to take on a five-day, five-week run streak. Whether it's 1k, 5k, 50 miles or any distance in between, join in and be in with a chance of winning a Garmin Forerunner 45. To be in with a chance to win simply share your running picture on social with with #GarminGiveFive and tag us (@AlzResearchUK on Twitter, @alzheimersresearchuk on Instagram) and @GarminUK. We will pick a winner every week! If you aren't able to submit a photo on social media but would still like to take part you can email your photo in to sportingevents@alzheimersreserachuk.org. Full T&Cs can be found here.

Alzheimer's Research UK is proud to be the official charity partner of parkrun UK. parkrunners have so far helped raise more than £1.6m, which helps us to continue to fund life-changing dementia research.