Prescott’s Son To Run London Marathon For Dementia

The son of John Prescott is running the London Marathon to raise money for dementia research in memory of his father.

The former deputy prime minister died at the age of 86 in November 2024 after living with Alzheimer’s disease for a number of years.

David Prescott said as well as fundraising, he was taking part in the race to raise awareness of the condition.

“It’s the biggest killer of people in the UK,” he said.

“For every one dementia researcher there’s four researchers looking into cancer research.

“So there’s a big inequality in terms of funding and in terms of mindset,” said Mr Prescott.Media caption,

David Prescott: Dementia research needs more money

Speaking on BBC Radio Humberside’s Breakfast Show, Mr Prescott admitted that he did not know much about the disease prior to his father’s illness.

He said that dementia needed to be “put at the heart” of the new NHS 10-year plan.

“We need to have the same vigour that we tackled Covid with,” he said.

In a statement, the Department of Health and Social Care said it was committed to providing high-quality care to people with dementia.

“We will put Britain at the forefront of transforming treatment for dementia, continuing to fund high-quality research into the disease and ensuring that new clinically and cost-effective treatments are rolled out in a safe and timely way,” a spokesperson said.

Lord Prescott was first elected as Labour MP for Hull East in 1970 and held the seat for almost 40 years. He served as deputy prime minister between 1997 and 2007.

His funeral service at Hull Minster in January was attended by most of the Labour cabinet, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and former prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, who all gave eulogies.

Mr Prescott said the floods of tributes paid to his father had made him feel like he was “being hit by a Tsunami”.

“To see the kind of response from people on social media, coming up to us at work, when I’m out and about and just hearing the tributes from everyone really whose lives were touched by him was just overwhelming,” he said.

“It was just lovely to see that kind of response from the people of Hull.”