Colin is in his 70s. His physical health is starting to deteriorate due to age, and his wife recently passed away.

Colin's story

Every evening Colin provides a blood sample to the overnight proteomics monitoring system by his bed and every morning he checks the results. He always looks first at the levels of a protein that can develop into a plaque at the base of the brain, causing Alzheimer's disease. This data is fed back into a national research database, which is used to improve understanding of the early biological signals of cognitive impairment.

Colin worries a lot about his memory, but perhaps his slip-ups are just part of adjusting to living alone. He often discusses these fears with friends at the local memory cafe.

Once a month, Colin visits the local pharmacist for more in-depth tests on cognitive function. He gets a free consultation with a pathology specialist to discuss these results, alongside those from his daily proteomic tests at home.

Colin’s official risk reading has remained unchanged at ‘medium’ for years. He still struggles to trust this assessment, but is learning to moderate his own worries about ageing with professional advice. After a year of self-monitoring, his pharmacist supports an application by Colin and his friends at the cafe for funding for a research study using the apps and proteomic data. It is a huge relief to be able to do something productive about his worries.