More than 1,200 are expected to descend on Leeds Castle for the Kent Memory Walk in aid of the Alzheimer’s Society today.

Television presenter Sally Lindsay, who played Shelley Unwin in Coronation Street, will start the event and walk in memory of her grandmother Ellen, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s aged 64 and died six years later.

She said: “I’ll be walking for Ellen and remembering the laughs we shared. She was very funny, dry and her timing was fantastic – I got all my comic tips from her.”

The charity’s Singing for the Brain groups will entertain walkers.

Jenny Connolly, Alzheimer’s Society community fundraiser, said: “This year Kent Memory Walk promises to be bigger and better than ever. We want to raise more than £100,000.

“There are 23,000 people living with dementia in Kent and Medway and this money will be used to help fund vital services and research into the condition.”

The Alzheimer’s Society is also urging people to become Dementia friends.

The friends attend training sessions to learn what it’s like to live with dementia then use that knowledge to make their communities more dementia-friendly, for example by keeping in touch with someone living with the condition.

See www.dementiafriends.org.uk and www.memorywalk.org.uk for more