WELL over 100 walkers followed a two-and-a-half mile route through Cassiobury Park in Watford this morning, raising money for The Alzheimer's Society.

Many wearing pictures of relatives and spouses inflicted by Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia, they raised sponsorship for local support services in the Watford contribution to the society's national Memory Walk.

Elaine Feast, the society's local support manager, said: "There are 15,000 people with dementia in the Watford area - about 70 per cent of those have Alzheimer's.

"We don't call them sufferers because we don't know they are suffering, but it can be very difficult for the people they are closest to.

"We have about 150 people walking today, and I hope we will raise at least £10,000, all to be spent on suppoort services in the Watford area."

Celebrity supporter and author Dr Catherine Horwood , whose mother had Alzheimer's disease, started the walk. She explained:

"It's a gradual bereavement. It is a terrible thing to see a person you love disappear in front of your eyes."

Manraj Jawana, walking with her husband Harry and pushing four-year-old Indi's pushchair, said: "My gandmother had Alzheimer's, so we are walking to remember her and to raise money for a good cause.

"She has been dead a few years now, but it was horrible. One minute there would be a tiny bit of recognition, but then it was gone."

The society's Watford branch runs weekly "memory cafes" in the Stanborough Centre, St Albans Road, for patients and their relatives, and also offers a helpline, advice and support.