On the Agenda - ART lifts the lid on dementia issue

- Why is this important?

According to the research, dementia affects 820,000 people and costs the UK economy £23bn annually. The news comes a year after the Government published its National Dementia Strategy. ART warned that 'dementia is the greatest medical challenge of the century'.

- What else was reported?

The report said that each dementia patient costs the British economy more than the average salary and five times more than the average cancer patient. For every £1m in health and social care costs for the disease, £129,269 is spent on cancer research and just £4,882 on dementia research.

- PR strategy and support

ART's in-house press team was responsible for promoting the story and was headed by press and parliamentary affairs officer Andrew Scheuber. The BBC and The Daily Telegraph were given the story last Tuesday and it was distributed to the wider media the following day.

- Media coverage

The BBC ran with the report as the lead story on its News website, with the headline 'Dementia "losing out" on funding', and it was discussed on BBC Breakfast. The Daily Telegraph covered the story on page 12.

820k people in the UK live with dementia

£23bn - The amount dementia costs the UK economy each year