IT is predicted around two million people will be living with dementia in the UK by 2050.

This, along with the fact that there are 40,000 younger people with dementia in the UK, are alarming statistics.

Dementia is a devastating condition for the sufferer and their families, but continued advances in research - and the prospect of a treatment being available within a decade - is bringing fresh hope.

Speaking in advance of his 2016 UCL School of Pharmacy New Year Lecture Pathways to Neurodegeneration, Professor John Hardy, a geneticist and molecular biologist who began his work on Alzheimer’s Disease and other neurodegenerative conditions in Sweden at the start of the 1980s, says: "In the coming year we will know if we are already at the start of a new era for better treatments for slowing or stopping the development of Alzheimer's Disease and allied neurodegenerative disorders, or if current research strategies will have to be refocused.

"I am confident that over the next decade or so we will find more effective ways of preventing or slowing the dementias. By 2050 such advances should be benefitting at least a million people a year in the UK, and tens of millions world-wide."

The prospect of a new treatment effective for treating the early stage of Alzheimer's Disease - the first treatment in a number of years - is of great interest to the Bradford scientists who are carrying out vital research into the disease.

"The best way to describe it is there is light at the end of the tunnel, but in a deep and dark tunnel, so any light is something we should work towards," says Dr Ritchie Williamson, lecturer in Therapeutics at the School of Pharmacy, Faculty Life Sciences at the University of Bradford.

The results of the trial, involving those with early stage Alzheimers, are expected in December but it is understood the treatment will delay the disease progression by a third. "So the decline we see in a person with dementia over 18 months would take 24 months in a person with the new treatment. So we can delay by a third in people who are already diagnosed with Alzheimer's (in the early stages of Alzheimers), the hope is that the earlier we detect the longer we can delay this decline," explains Dr Williamson.

His interest developed while studying for a bio-chemistry degree. Subsequently he undertook a masters in neuroscience and a doctorate in Alzheimer's disease. He has been actively involved in lab research into the disease for 18 years.

"There is a massive global effort to try and understand it and there has been a massive push for many many years now," says Dr Williamson.

"We are making progress, we are learning a lot about how the brain works and how it works with Alzheimer's and dementia and we are slowly chipping away at it.

"Part of the problem is we don't know what causes it and if you don't know what causes it you find it hard to come up with treatments, but there are clues in the brain and these are what these therapies are targeting."

Evidence suggests lifestyle can play a part and tests are currently focusing on improvements in diet; mental activities and physical activity which can all reduce the risk of developing the disease.

"We are at the stage where we are learning an awful lot about the brain; how lifestyle can impact on the brain.

It is 30 years of intensive research.

"The reason we are getting excited about this (treatment) is it shows we can do something about it.

"At the moment there are only four drugs on the market for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and that is shocking - there are hundreds of treatments for treating a cold and it breaks my heart."

But Dr Williamson says it is also indicative of how difficult and complex a disease it is. "If you look at the worldwide cost of dementia just 15% was spent on direct medical costs and that tells you how few treatments there are."

Dr Doug Brown, Director of Research and Development at Alzheimer's Society, says: "The development of treatments that can slow the rate of memory loss in Alzheimer's disease will, without a doubt, mark a turning point in the way dementia is managed, and be life-changing for people with the condition.

"Decades of underfunding have left dementia research lagging more than 20 years behind the progress seen in cancer research, but with recent commitments from the Government and charities like Alzheimer's Society, the tables are turning. We are now making much needed advancements in our understanding of what goes wrong in the brain when dementia develops and what we should be doing to tackle it."