Greg Szanto hopes to raise around £10,000 for the town branch of the Alzheimer's Society, a cause he feels strongly about as a psychotherapist who sees many people with dementia.

He said, "I want to raise the profile of the charity, it is very important people are more aware of it.

"It is a bit of a Cinderella charity, but it is important that it is not pushed under the carpet and people acknowledge that Alzheimer's is there."

He said there needed to be more care for the carers, many of whom looked after loved ones and did not even realise they were carers, let alone the help they were entitled to.

"It is devastating and upsetting for the families as well as the people who have got the illness, and Eastbourne Alzheimer's Society has not got much money, although it does a lot with what it has got."

This includes giving dementia care training to carers and care staff, sending three outreach workers out to people's homes, providing information on benefits and and allowances through its helpline and holding a 'meet and greet' drop-in service at the Bourne Centre in Upper Avenue.

This autumn the charity will launch an activity-based club for younger people under 65 with the disease called See Haven at the Bourne Centre.

The money raised by the mayor will help to pay for this and go towards a minibus to take members out on trips, expected to cost around £25,000.

The mayor's charity fundraising will include a concert by the Band of the Irish Guards at the Congress Theatre next February and his charity ball next March at the Winter Garden. The Alzheimer's Society holds its memory walk along Eastbourne seafront on Sunday, September 21.

Around 2,050 people in Eastbourne are living with dementia and this is expected to rise by 20 per cent by 2011. The Eastbourne Alzheimer's Society sees about 170 people a month.

To make a donation to Eastbourne Alzheimer's Society, send a cheque, payable to 'The mayor of Eastbourne's charity', to Mayor's Office, Town Hall, Grove Road, BN21 4UG, or call Nicola Metcalfe on 415020. Email: mayorsoffice@eastbourne.gov.uk.

To volunteer to help Eastbourne Alzheimer's Society, call Carol McHale on 727127.