Celebrity Profile – Sir Terry Pratchett

Born: 1948

Significant Work: Discworld novels

Disability: Alzheimer’s

Sir Terry Pratchett has sold over 55 million books world wide. He has recently received a knighthood, in1998 he received an OBE for services to literature and he has received 6 honorary doctorates from a verity of universities.

In December 2007 Terry revealed he had been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer’s, in which time he has written two best selling books. Since his diagnosis, he has made a public donation of £1 million to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust and filmed a programme to record his experience with the disease for the BBC.

In a speech to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, Sir Terry Pratchett said: ‘People ask me why I announced that I had Alzheimer’s. My response was: why shouldn’t I? I remember when people died “of a long illness” now we call cancer by its name, and as every wizard knows, once you have a thing’s real name you have the first step to its taming. We are at war with cancer, and we use that vocabulary. We battle, we are brave, we survive.’