CHeBA's Professors, Associate Professors, Doctors, Study Coordinators, Research Assistants, Students, Managers and support staff have united virtually to clock more than 10,000 kilometres (nearly 15 million steps) from London to the Himalayas to promote the significance of social connectedness and physical health during Sydney's lockdown.
The ambitious virtual distance, commencing at the start of World Alzheimer's Month on 1st September, is a tribute to CHeBA's leaders, Professor Henry Brodaty AO and Professor Perminder Sachdev AM. In the early 1970s the system in New South Wales was that trainees for specialist training in psychiatry were required to spend their first year in a rural placement. As a young 26-year old, Co-Director Henry Brodaty chose London and as such, his first job as a psychiatry trainee was in the Academic Department of Psychiatry, Middlesex Hospital.
CHeBA's staff and students will make their way across Paris, Switzerland, Slovenia, Sarajevo, Istanbul, Turkey, Syria and more all the way to the foothills of the Himalayas, in dedication of Co-Director Perminder Sachdev, who grew up in a small town near Shimla, the capital of Himachal Pradseh. Professor Sachdev completed his schooling at St Luke's School in Solan, just 1,000kms away from Kathmandu where this virtual walk will conclude.
During Greater Sydney's current lockdown restrictions, everyone at CHeBA is limited to a 5km radius from their homes and are missing their professional and social interaction. As such, and in support of Sydney's Operation Stay at Home, the CHeBA team will rack up as many of their steps and kilometres as possible within their own homes, creatively using lounge room shuttle runs and stairs to increase their physical activity.
There is clear evidence that lockdowns can take a toll on our physical and mental wellbeing, and the CHeBA Lockdown Challenge is set to promote the benefits of physical exercise and social connectedness - even virtually.
With CHeBA's Co-Directors walking the talk and joining the CHeBA Lockdown Challenge, please give generously and sponsor one of the staff or students to advance research into healthy brain ageing for all Australians. All funds raised by the CHeBA Lockdown Challenge will support research not only into early diagnosis, treatment and care for those with dementia, but also its prevention, and the promotion of positive ageing for the future.
