Alzheimer's disease research cash.

MUSIC legend Sir Cliff Richard has raised pounds 50,000 for Alzheimer's research at a Tyneside university.

As Sir Cliff celebrates his golden anniversary of chart success, a TV appeal film fronted by the Peter Pan of pop has raised pounds 50,000 for research at Newcastle University.

The film formed one of the BBC1 Lifeline's monthly national TV appeals and more than 1,000 people donated towards the Alzheimer's Research Trust's (ART) total.

The appeal has made a major contribution to the charity's voluntary income for the year and has secured funding for dementia researchers at Newcastle University for 12-months. The team, led by Dr Kim Krishnan, are looking at whether problems with our brain cells' batteries, called mitochondria, cause the loss of power to brain cells seen in Alzheimer's patients.

Sir Cliff, a patron of ART, was moved to take part in the campaign after losing his mother Dorothy to Alzheimer's disease last year. In the film, he spoke of how he and his sisters were slowly robbed of the vibrant woman they once knew.

Featuring two women affected by Alzheimer's, the film went on to show how the disease takes effect from diagnosis, before moving on to the devastating later stages that see patients requiring constant care. The chairman of the ART's science advisory board, Prof Simon Lovestone, also appeared to explain the urgent need for funding into dementia to help head off an estimated doubling in Alzheimer's cases forecast in the next generation.

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APPEAL TO PUBLIC: Sir Cliff Richard