This year's saddest Christmas advert is guaranteed to break your heart

Having your memories snatched away from you is probably one of the cruelest, most tragic things we can think of. What’s even sadder than that? Bloody having it happen to Santa Claus.

Alzheimer’s Research UK has created a beautifully moving Christmas advert with Aardman (the minds behind Wallace & Gromit), narrated by Stephen Fry, which tells the story of a young girl named Freya who learns for the first time about Santa Claus in a tale from her father, because she’s never experienced him...because he’s got dementia, meaning he can’t deliver presents to children around the world.

Moved by the tale, Freya then travels to the North Pole with an aim to cure a now downcast, grey-ish Santa and restore Christmas to its former glory, rounding up a team of elves to try and fix him.

You might want to look away when it next comes on the telly, but please don’t. Christmas may be a time to forget all your problems, but it doesn’t mean they’re not there. More than 850,000 people in the UK have dementia, which has an impact on our economy costing £24 billion.

Hillary Evans, the Chief Executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK said: “We have made enormous strides against diseases like cancer and Aids, and with the right research we can do the same for dementia. The advert reminds us to believe in the power of research.”

It’s only being shown after 9pm in case the advert upsets children. But the rest of us will have to cry during the adverts of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!

Best stock up on the Kleenex.