Match It For Pratchett

A Very Musical Death

If you are anywhere near Guilford this week, get yourself along to Mort, The Musical. Full details can be found at the composer's website including a couple of songs. The production has already had great reviews.

Knit for Pratchett

A great awareness raising activity from a group of knitters*. They have created the Pratchgan, a large knitted blanket made up of individual squares. Full story and photos: The Pratchgan 2008 - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!!

Potent Voyager

Countdown Initiated

• 10
• 9
• 7a
• 7
• 6
• 5
• 4
• 3
• 2
• 1
• Lift off
• Potent Voyager has cleared the tower

Pratchett fans plan to place a satellite in orbit on behalf of the Alzheimer's Research Trust (ART) in an attempt to win the N-Prize. If successful the winnings will go to the ART.

The N-Prize is a low cost take on the Ansari X-Prize. The rules are simple:

The N-Prize is a cash prize of £9, 999.99 (nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine pounds and ninety-nine pence, sterling), which will be awarded to the first person or group to put into orbit, around the Earth, a satellite with a mass of between 9.99 and 19.99 grams, and to prove that it has completed at least 9 orbits. The cost of the launch (but not ground facilities) must fall within a budget of £999.99. Imaginative use of string and chewing gum is encouraged. Entrants are responsible for everything, organisers are responsible for nothing.

The team is called Potent Voyager and according to their website:

We have a concept for a kind of Rockoon that we think has a good chance of succeeding at the N-Prize tho some details need refining. The core team needs to thoroughly check out some more safety, legal and funding issues before we involve others but we may be looking for volunteers from the Discworld fandom community to help us with our goal over the coming months and years (the deadline for the prize is 19:19:09 (GMT) on the 19th September 2011).

The whole concept of the N-Prize is fantastic but for a group of fans to be doing it for Alzheimer's research is absolutely brilliant. They can rely on Match It For Pratchett's support in this endeavor.

Thanks to From Rim To Hub for the info.

The Fake Bus Stop

Q. How do you stop Alzheimer's patients wandering away from a care home?

A. Build a fake bus stop.

“It sounds funny,” said Old Lions Chairman Franz-Josef Goebel, “but it helps. Our members are 84 years-old on average. Their short-term memory hardly works at all, but the long-term memory is still active. They know the green and yellow bus sign and remember that waiting there means they will go home.” The result is that errant patients now wait for their trip home at the bus stop, before quickly forgetting why they were there in the first place.

“We will approach them and say that the bus is coming later today and invite them in to the home for a coffee,” said Mr Neureither. “Five minutes later they have completely forgotten they wanted to leave.” The idea has proved so successful that it has now been adopted by several other homes across Germany.

It is a clever solution and a makes for a mildly amusing story but most importantly it is a reminder of the true cost of Alzhemier's. The loss of so much mental capacity that a fake bus stop will confound you.

Source: Wayward Alzheimer's patients foiled by fake bus stop via Boing Boing

Pratchett on the Radio

Terry Pratchett was on BBC's Radio 4 program, On The Ropes, discussing his diagnosis and the challenges of living with it. You can listen online using the Beeb's fabulous listen again feature. It will be up for at least a week and maybe much longer than that.

Thanks to Mind Hacks for reminding me about this and for giving Match It For Pratchett a mention.

Wear the Lilac - Over $500 Raised So Far

Auronsgirl's fantastic lilac pins have raised over $500 so far. I imagine that this has involved a lot of work creating the pins, especially as its five times her original target.

Well done Auronsgirl.

Remember, Wear the Lilac day is May 25th so if you want one you need to get your order in pronto. On the subject of speed, you have less than 48 hours to order a Match It For Pratchett T-shirt before I take the current design offline.

Brain Size and Alzheimer's

Though the cause of Alzheimer's disease (AD) remains unclear, research has indicated an association between AD and accumulations of amyloid-beta plaque and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. While these abnormal brain changes have been viewed as a defining characteristic of AD, autopsies have shown that plaques and tangles can also be present in the brains of people who did not experience cognitive decline while alive. New research from the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland indicates that brain size may be involved in this discrepancy. The study, which was presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Chicago, found that individuals with a large hippocampus were less likely to have symptoms of AD although plaques and tangles were present in their brains.

From: Study Links Brain Size to Alzheimer's

What Is Alzheimer's Disease?

Over on the Sharp Brains blog they are carrying an essay on Alzheimer's Disease by a US High School student called Kristin H. The essay was a project set by their Psychology teacher Jeffrey Gonce to describe a brain disorder that affects behavior and post it online.

Kristen's essay is one of several quality essays produced by the students and it tackles Alzheimer's. Not only is the essay informative but it also cites the scientific studies from which it draws its data. Its good to see that the next generation of scientists is learning its trade because the fight against Alzheimer's Disease is going to be a long one.

"Without (memory), we are hollow persons, not only empty of a past, but lacking a foundation upon which to build the future" (Altman 27). In a brain affected by Alzheimer's disease, neurons, nerve cells, are unable to work properly (Altman 29-30). Studies have shown that Uch-L1, an enzyme which rids the brain of protein, begins to disappear as the presence of the protein amyloid beta plaque begins to increase in an Alzheimer's brain as opposed to a normal brain. The abundance of the amyloid beta plaque partially disables a neuron's ability to communicate with other neurons (Coghlan).

From Alzheimer's Disease: Treatment Directions via Mindhacks.

Dine with Terry Pratchett

A message from the Alzheimer’s Research Trust:

Calling all fans of Terry Pratchett and Raj Persaud!

On 1st May the Alzheimer’s Research Trust will be hosting an exclusive dinner at a private venue in London. The format of the evening is a dinner hosted by consultant psychiatrist, broadcaster and author of various popular publications on psychiatry, Dr Raj Persaud, with acclaimed author Terry Pratchett OBE as guest of honour. Mr Pratchett and Dr Persaud will spend time with our guests talking about their involvement with the Alzheimer’s Research Trust.

Places are strictly limited and seats will be allocated to the highest bidder with monies raised going to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust to support further research into Alzheimer’s and related forms of dementia.

If you would like to join Alzheimer’s Research Trust for this wonderful and unique evening, please register your pledge with us as soon as possible. You can do so by email to terrypratchettdinner@alzheimers-research.org.uk or by letter to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, The Stables, Station Road, Great Shelford, Cambridge, CB22 5LR or fax to 01223 843325. We need to hear from you by 3pm on 21st April. Successful bidders will be notified by close of business on 24th April.

Seat allocation will operate on a closed-bid basis. In the event of several bids of equal amount being received, where it is not possible to distinguish which bid was made first, invitees will be chosen by process of random selection.

Our Friends Electric Digital

Its been a few days since I gave a big wave to all the people who have linked to us and supported us. Out biggest friend is StumbleUpon so huge thank you to users of that service who have clicked on our link. Next up are Neil Gaiman and Nielsen Hayden. Both these blogs have sent us a mountain of traffic which in turn has helped raise thousands of dollars.

Live Journal is the birth place of Match It For Pratchett and hundreds LJ users have linked to us but a special mention must go to George R.R. Martin. He has sent us over 500 visitors. Thank you George.

Of course size isn't everything. The whole point of Match It To Pratchett is that we don't have £500,000 each but 500,000 of us each have £1. So I would like to thank all the blogs who sent us just a few readers. Like Mad Hatter Muses, Magic For Beginners, Lynn Gardner and Faery Scrapper.

Wear the Lilac, $100 so far

On her LJ Discworld community, auronsgirl reports

In just a little over a week, sales of lilac pins for Alzheimer's have reached and exceeded my inital donation goal of $100.00!

Remember, on May 25th, wear the lilac to celebrate the Discworld books and raise money for Alzheimer's research.

Look Out! Robots!

Nothing to do with Match It For Pratchett but I thought this might provide some light entertainment.

They are all there... 51 different robots from film, television, books, toys and one even from a famous classic rock album. Can you figure out all 51? Do you even know who Konky was?

Its from the T-Shirt store, Chop Shop and its called We Robot.

Aten't dead yet

On her LJ account, Pat has posted some donation news and has some things to say about Match It For Pratchett:

And yes, I know: Terry "aten't dead yet." That's the whole point.

Here's my thing (to phrase a coin):

Memorials are nice. They're OK. They're the mark of civilization, of an intelligence great enough to conceive of something beyond itself, to live beyond the five senses. But frankly, I prefer to help people while they're still around to benefit.

Read the complete post: Match It For Pratchett in Action

EDIT: Link fixed and now points to the correct post. (Thanks Jem)

Spend Money For Charity

Online comic strips Narbonic and Skin Horse are selling off original artwork at $25 a strip. All proceeds to The Alzheimer's Research Trust. Thanks to From Rim To Hub for the tip-off.

Alternatively you can spend your money on a variety of auctions including proof editions of Good Omens and Only You Can Save Mankind, as well as various George R. R. Martin books. All proceeds going toAlzheimer's Association. Full details of the auctions here.

Money & Match It For Pratchett

The amount of money the campaign has taken through the Donation Jar has been staggering. The jar itself was just an after-thought, quickly added to the web site when I saw Typepad made it very easy it set one up. I only ever expected it to be a connivence for those who had Paypal accounts and for it to collect a small amount of money. In some ways this is true, much much more money has gone straight to the charity. However several thousand dollars in my Paypal account is more than I expected to handle and this has been worrying me.

To the rescue comes Rebecca, CEO of the Alzheimer's Research Trust. We had a good chat yesterday and the Trust is in the process of setting up its own Paypal account. Once its up and running, I will switch the Donation Jar so that it pays direct into their account instead of mine. All the money collected so far will also be transfered over. Because of the bank holiday and the hoops the charity needs to go through to set up their Paypal account this is not going to happen until next week. In the meantime I will continue to give regular updates and list each and every donation on the Detailed Accounts page.

The money from the T-Shirt's will still flow into my account and be forwarded on to the charity at regular intervals. However I will be updating the site slightly to make it clear how much of each shirt goes to the charity. (Its $10 per shirt).

Rebecca has promised to keep us informed of how much has been raised and she sends her thanks to everyone who has donated, posted on their blog about the campaign or simply told a friend about it. The response of Terry's fans around the world has been fantastic.

$35 Dollars an Hour

In the six days this site has been running, we have raised an average of $35 per hour via the Donation Jar and T-Shirt sales with lots more given directly to the Alzheimer's charities. As an hour of Alzheimer's research costs $25, for every hour Match It For Pratchett has existed, its funded at least one and a half hours of research. This is purely down to everyone's generosity, in money, in time and effort spent spreading the word. Thank you.

Summary of Accounts as of 21/3/2008 at 10:39

Donations via MatchItForPratchett.org: $4504

T-Shirt sales (Completed and Pending): $845.01

Costs (Paypal Charges): $-203.58

Total Raised via MatchItForPratchett.org: $5145.43

Full details on the Money & Accounts page.

Thank Goodness For Google

We are seeing a slow down in traffic arriving at the site. This is only to be expected as the freshness of the campaign wears off and we head into the long Easter Weekend. But it is clear that the idea of Match It For Pratchett has entered the internet consciousness. Hundreds of visitors have arrived here after searching on "Match It For Pratchett" in Google*. We also have been picking up traffic from the wonderful bloggers like Jemjabella and grrlScientist who continue to link to us.

*If, like me, you are fascinated by search engines and all things internet, the fact that Yahoo has supplied less then 10% the number of visitors of Google may be of interest. The first visitor from Google was at 11.41 PM on the 15th. Not bad as the site only 2.34 PM the same day.

Wear The Lilac - May 25th

It is a tribute to the Terry Pratchett's writing skills and his friendly attitude to fans that he has inspired not only Match It For Pratchet but a second campaigns to raise money Alzheimer's.

In Nightwatch, the men who fought and died (and in one case, fought, died and kept on fighting) in the Revolution are remembered by the wearing of sprigs of lilac every May 25th. The online Pratchett communities have adopted May 25th as Wear The Lilac day, an unofficial holiday celebrating Pratchett's work. Now AG has taken it one step further with these fantastic Lilac Pins with the proceeds split between the American Alzheimer's Association and the Alzheimer's Research Trust.

From AG's website:

These lilac pins are made from life-size silk blooms and tied with a black velvet ribbon. The large size blooms are approximately the size of a lady's corsage spray, and the smaller blooms are the size of a gentleman's buttonhole/boutonniere.

More details on Wear the Lilac for Alzheimer's

We think that Wear The Lilac is a great idea to show your support of both Terry Pratchett and to raise money for Alzheimer's research. Here at Match It For Pratchett we have ideas to support Wear The Lilac with special Icons for download and possibly T-shirts. |f you have ideas or ways of supporting Wear The Lilac day, please let us know via the comments.

Buy Books

Dan Blum writes

I've just listed two items on eBay with 100% of the proceeds going to the US Alzheimer's Association: The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox (signed limited edition) and The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox (book club edition). Obviously Pratchett items would be better but I have nothing in that line of value except my own copy of Once More* With Footnotes (unlike some people I only have the one :)), and the Noreascon shirt, which I can't find. If I can find the shirt I will auction that. In the meantime I figured other humorous fantasy works would do well enough. The signed edition of this is highly collectible (less so when reprinted in October, to be sure), and even the book club version can go for $100 or more these days. I will probably put more items up soon, such as Lankhmar hardcovers.

I've not read the book (its a collection of Bridge of Bird, The Story of the Stone and Eight Skilled Gentlemen) but my partner has, and has reread it, and reread it again. So buy these books. The money is going to a good cause and someone you don't know thinks they are good enough to warrant repeated reading.

Details of all the charity auction and fund raising events happening are on the aptly named Charity Auctions & Fund Raising Events page. If you are thinking of auctioning something for charity then read this:

I've been a full-time seller for 8 years now, and am pretty much used to navigating the myriad rules on eBay. So if anyone else auctioning anything for Alzheimer's would like me to cast an eye over their listing for anything that might get the listing removed, I'll be happy to do so. Just drop me an email - sue -at- tamebay -dot- com.

Sue's blog, Tamebay, was one of the first non-LJ places to cover Match It For Pratchett. Sky's problems with its auction show how easy it is to get things wrong so please take advantage of Sue's offer. The Luggage's current bid is £2,550.

Donate And Get A Book Deal!

Ok, not quite but Jennifer Jackson (arcaedia on LJ) is a literary agent and has offered to read and review a synopsis of your novel plus 50 (or so) of its pages. But only for the person who donates the most. This is all being done by Jennifer so please don't send me anything.

All the details are here.

Generous In Seattle

News from Adrienne Loska

Inspired by Pat's challenge to match Terry Pratchett’s one million dollar donation, we will be doing Match it for Pratchett fundraising at Norwescon 31 in Seattle this weekend. The donation box available at the Northwest Science Fiction Society Table. We’ve just begun advertising our involvement and the response has already been fantastic - fans and pros alike are very excited to participate in this global fund drive. One book seller will be donating her profits from the sale of Terry Pratchett books! Be sure to stop by the NWSFS table, or see one of us, at Norwescon.

The Emerald Isle

If you want something to do over the weekend of 29th-30th March, then go to Dublin. Its a great city and it hosts a great SF convention full of generous people.

Hey, I'm CE Murphy, GoH at P-Con in Ireland, and we are planning on doing a Match It fundraiser of some kind, in the form of a tip jar at the front desk if nothing else. I'm hoping we'll be giving out tickets to everybody who donates, and at the end of the weekend I'll be donating a full set of my Walker Papers series (consisting of URBAN SHAMAN, "Banshee Cries" (in the anthology WINTER MOON), THUNDERBIRD FALLS and COYOTE DREAMS to a ticket drawn from the Match It hat.

You can give direct The Alzheimer's Society of Ireland through its Donation Page. Details are also on the Guide To Giving.

You can also drink tea for Alzheimer's with The Alzheimer's Society of Ireland fundraising Tea Day on the 1st of May with a website. (Thanks Sshi)

Lies Travel Fast But Love Goes Even Faster

I think its in Making Money The Truth (thanks PixelFish) that someone uses the line "A lie can be halfway around the world before the truth has got its boots on". Well it seems than people's love of the Discworld can travel just as fast. We are now getting traffic from a huge range of sources including a very small mention in "mainstream" meda such as USA Today and the Guardian Booktalk forum. We are also been turning up on political sites like Democratic Underground and Free Republic.

The SF & F community continue to be supporters, such as Forbidden Planet, Locus Magazine, UK SF News, the Traveller RPG forums, Dear Author, the Library Thing, ActuSF, Elbakin, Wyrdsmiths and the Discworld MUD.

Social networking sites are sending us lots of people including some sites I had never heard of like Utterz. Live Journal plus Insane Journal and Dead Journal continue to send hundreds of visitors to us. Its impossible to list all the people who have mentioned us on their journal but thank you, thank you, thank you. Facebook, Reddit and Stumbleupon have sent us thousands. Numerous blogs such as Suzies Book Pages, Firefox News, the Rage Diaries andRagnell have also linked to us.

The range of interests that Pratchett fans enjoy is impressive. From the Fountain Pen Forums to fans of Barenaked Ladies (work safe, its about the band). It also seems the motorbike fans are also big Pratchett fans with Bikers Web and The Rev Counter, and 100% Biker all send us decent traffic.

Please keep up the good work in spreading the word. You can help by using the Digg buttons on each post or by promoting Match It For Pratchett on Reddit and similar sites.

Books are not Entertainment

I just went to Digg to give Lara Croft's Buttocks a push because every little helps (you can help by using the Digg option under each post). To submit something to Digg you have to place it in a category and so I looked at the options under Entrainment. A reasonable choice I thought, but not according to Digg who has these options for Entertainment are.

• Celebrity
• Movies
• Music
• Television
• Comics & Animation

It seems Digg doesn't have any Books related categories at all so I placed it under General Science as the least worst option. With people like Terry and J K Rowling making headline news (along with the sad news about Arthur C. Clarke), its strange that books and authors in general seem to be forgotten.

New Dedicated T-Shirt Shop

I've set up a dedicated Match It For Pratchett T-shirt shop so that we don't have to use my Poosk store as it contains some items that may offend. I hope to have a Spreadshirt store set up for UK & Europe but there is a delay whilst they check the design is OK to print with their process. Everything should be up and running by the end of the week.

Grand Total: £34,000

Direct to Alzheimer's Research Trust: £32,189.65 (824 donations)

Via MatchItForPratchett.org: $3973.34

Approximate Total: £34,000

The Alzheimer's Research Trust figure is on the conservative side as the charity is still catching up with the flood of donations. Details of the money raised from MatchItForPratchett.org can be found on the Money & Accounts page. We don't know how much has been donated in the US or around the world but we hope to have some information soon.

Events This Weekend

This weekend is Orbital, 2008's Eastercon SF & F convention and it has a great line up of guests including Neil Gaiman who co-wrote Good Omens with Terry Pratchett and has written much, much more including the delightful Stardust.

Orbital will be stuffed full of Discworld fans who will be given amble opportunities to donate money to Match It For Pratchett including a book auction. There will also be buckets going round and other fund raising activities.

I'm sure there will be other events happening over the next few weeks that will be similarly full of people willing to donate to Match It For Pratchett. For example Norwescon (19th - 23rd March, Seattle, WA, USA) or P-Con (29th-30th March, Dublin, Ireland). If you are organising an event and are doing fund raising for Match It For Pratchett, please let us know via the comments and we will give you a big plug. If you are going to any event, no matter how big or small, remember to take hat or bucket with you and have a collection.

Every little bit helps.

Just £12.50 ($25) is enough to fund one hour of cutting-edge research yet charities have to turn away most research grant applications because they haven't the money.

Gorgeous Discworld Badges

UPDATE: This post has been removed because of this Important!. We of course respect Terry's wishes on this.

Auctions

The has been some problem with the auction of the Luggage from Sky's Colour of Magic production but it has now been re-listed. The latest bid is £1919.69 and the auction runs to March 24th. Other auction news, Arkady Rose, the seller of Antique Violin, 1860s, German, beautiful instrument!! writes

I will be donating 20% of the final sale price to the Alzheimer's Research Trust for "Match It For Pratchett". Alzheimer's research is a cause close to my own heart, as I have lost two grandparents to Alzheimer's and a third is suffering from it. Given that there is a genetic component to Alzheimer's, I am faced with the very real prospect that it is also in my future one day.

The Charity Auctions & Fund Raising Events page has been updated with new details.

Where to Give - Part 2

Thank to sshi, visibleprocrastinations, Sue, Siobhan for supplying information on Alzheimer's charities from around the world.

You can give directly to either of these two Australian organisations. The links will take you straight to their donation page.

• Alzheimer’s Australia
• The McCusker Foundation for Alzheimer’s Disease

Can a French speaker have a look at the France Alzheimer's site and let me know a URL that goes straight to a donation page. France Alzheimer's Donation Page (Thanks Joanna).

You can probably give to Alzheimer’s Canada but their site is down at the moment.

From K`shandra

A recommendation for those who use the online donation page at Alzheimer's Association (USA) - use the Tribute link, and note that your contribution is in honor of Match It For Pratchett. It's not perfect (there's only room to note one honor/memorial, so you can't mention that AND a family member or friend), but it would be nice to see how many contributions the other organizations outside the UK receive.

I've updated the Guide to Giving with the new direct donation links and there is a new page for a list ofAlzheimer's Groups from around the world.

I CAN HAS DONASHUN?

News is spreading far and wide and I'm having trouble keeping up with all the places and people who are linking to Match It For Pratchett. If you've linked and I've missed you, please accept my apologies. If you haven't linked to us, why not? Help spread the word where ever you can, such as on I Can Has Cheezburger, Terry Pratchett's Wikipedia entry, the Lord of the Rings forum Ring Bearer, the Nexus War Forums, disability site But You don't Look Sick, Knitting forums Ravelry, or theBoard Game Geek forums.

Science Fiction & Fantasy fans are standing up as one and offering support including David (Discworld quiz books) Langford's long running Ansible, SF Signals, SFX Magazine's forums, Discworld Stamps forum, North American Discworld Convention community, Australian Discworld convetion, The Watch House forums, SFF Net , the Terry Pratchett Books forum, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America and writers Torey Hayden and Melanie Fletcher.

Bloggers are doing their thing: Tame Bay, {Insert Witty Tittle Here}, Book Garden, Bart's Bookshelf, Non-English blogs Sukumas, Actus SF and No SF , Making Light, Visible Procrastinations and Owls Count

Please keep posting about Match It For Pratchett, in every forum and in every blog you can.

Why They Are Giving

News of Match It For Pratchett is continuing to spread fast thanks to the numerous Live Journal folks who have been linking to us. We are also seeing Match It for Pratchett spring up elsewhere, such as the Fancy Rat community, the Book Crossing forums, Journal Fen users, UKNot, BPal and bloggers like Tania and From Rim Too Hub.

Amongst all the links there are reminders of why research is desperately needed and glimpse of the human cost of Alzheimer's. A cost that is normally hidden from all but the close family such as Jason Lundberg.

My parents took me and my sister to visit [Grandmother] a few times in the later stages, and she was hardly recognizable from the sweet thoughtful woman who spoiled me on visits, sang to me at inappropriate times in restaurants, and had once performed at Carnegie Hall. She didn't know who I was and had a hard time communicating at all; her body, petite to begin with, had pulled into itself, her back hunched over, knees clamped together, hands contracted into claws. Toward the end, she had to be fed intravenously because her epiglottis was no longer preventing food from going into her lungs when swallowing, and she was unable to cough it back up. It was an unbelievably uncomfortable experience seeing this woman that I loved in such an undignified and helpless position

Auctions, Events and Gaimen

We have a new page for Auctions and Fund Raising Events. So far there are three different auctions featuring The Luggage, Terry Pratchett's rarest book and a woodcarving. We also have a 10K sponsored run in aid of Alzheimer's research.

Thanks go to Neil Gaiman who has mentioned us on his journal. Neil and Terry wrote Good Omens together. I remember one of the authors once commenting that the was originally going to be called William the Antichrist after Richmal Crompton's Just William stories.

T-Shirts & Icons

This Match It For Pratchett Icon and t-shirt design is currently available from my Poosk web site of strange stuff. I'm going to be setting up a separate Cafe Press store for it and probably a UK / Europe friendly Spreadshirt store as well but I probably won't get time until tomorrow.

If you are feeling artistic and have icons or t-shirt designs for the Match It For Pratchett campaign then let us know using the comments. The more t-shirts, icons and so forth we have, the faster we can spread the word.

You Can Own The Luggage

The Alzheimer's Research Trust is auctioning off a replica of the Luggage used in the filming of Sky's One’s adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic. This quirky ‘suitcase’ is filled with the full library of Discworld novels, plus the production designs used to build the luggage as seen in the film. Both the books and the designs have been signed by Terry Pratchett.

Its a once in lifetime opportunity to buy something special and help a good cause so get bidding on Terry Pratchett & Sky One, Colour of Magic for Charity

Don't forget, you can also bid on the Terry Pratchett's rarest book, Once More* with Footnotes.

Boing Boing On Match It for Pratchett

Boing Boing has just posted on the Match It for Pratchett drive. One of things mentioned in the comments is this charity sale on eBay of Once More* with Footnotes. If you have any fund raising events, charity auction or whatever then comment below and we will give them a proper plug.

Match it For Pratchett! Raising £500,000 for Alzheimer's research

Calling All Fan Groups

If you know of any Pratchett fan groups on Facebook, LiveJournal or elsewhere that are helping to spread the word about Match It For Pratchett then let us know. Put the details in a comment below and we will give them a nice big plug plus add them to our 'Getting Involved' list.

Facebook Action

If you are on Facebook you can join the Matching Funds with Terry Pratchett.

First Post!

Welcome to Match It For Pratchett, the campaign to match Terry Pratchett's $1 million ( £500,000 ) donation to Alzheimer's Research. In time we will have news of how much has been raised and how you can help but right now things are still being set up. If you would like to support the campaign, the most useful thing you can do right now is spread the word. Post a link on your web site, on Twitter, Face Book or whichever social networking site you use.