Hayling Island PhD student makes a breakthrough discovery

Cassidy Fiford, from Hayling Island and a PhD student at Dementia Research Centre, University College London, has found that damage to blood vessels in the brain can drive the shrinking of the hippocampus, an area of the brain that is critical for memory.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, a condition that affects 850,000 people in the UK and more than 19,000 people in Hampshire.

Cassidy, a former Portsmouth High School pupil, said: ‘I am very excited about this latest finding and hope this new study will help to build a bigger picture of the progression of Alzheimer’s, and importantly enable other researchers to gain insight into the initial stages of the disease.

‘These results are key because they illustrate just how important our heart health is for our brain.’