Category: Blog

A very busy session as usual. Lisa welcomed everyone and introduced 2 guests – a medical student from Cambridge University – Georgia Hui and Eric from the ‘Barnet Walking Football Team’. Georgia was grateful for the opportunity to sit and chat to members and Eric was very helpful throughout the session.

We also had some new members today and one of the members brought their little dog a cross breed cockapoodle, her name is ‘Bee’ She was very excited to see so many people and some of the members were happy to stroke her.

Lisa then briefed members with program updates and then gave out a picture for members to trace. This picture was taken from the recent Bletchley Park outing. There was lots of concentration as members were trying to trace their own character and transferring it onto another piece of paper. They enjoyed it.

There were also 3 birthdays to celebrate today. Brian Meads birthday was on the 18th August, Brian Copping’s birthday was on the 22nd August and Andreas Timotheou’s birthday was on the 25th August. Lisa brought 3 cakes and the birthdays were celebrated in the usual Dementia Club UK fashion.

The session then followed with our new music entertainers – Wayne and Charlie from Timeless Performers. They were absolutely amazing and got everyone up and dancing very quickly.

Thank you to all our volunteers today – Annette, Dr Angela, Angela Chen, Melvyn, Melissa, Eric and of course Mark.

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Today we celebrated 2 launches at Carlton Court Care Home in Bells Hill, Barnet.

Carlton Court Care Home is part of the TLC Group. TLC stands for ‘Truth,Love, Compassion’ Lisa was delighted to welcome the residents and families who attended today and also welcomed special guests Lorna Badrick – Chief Operating Officer from TLC and Rose Degen who was representing the Chairman of Saracens. It was also nice to see some of our volunteers and regular members.

Lisa mentioned in her speech how delighted she was to be opening the first dementia club in a Care home and also to have installed an OM interactive which would provide hours of fun and joy not only to the residents but also to families.

Dementia Club UK is very happy to have donated this product to Carlton Court Care Home. All this of course would not be possible without the continued support of Saracens who do so much for the young and elderly in the community.

Lisa has organised musical entertainment with James Le Bec who will be attending every month. His performance today was as usual amazing and always has everyone laughing. His name that tune game using a large dice is always fun and challenging. Residents and family members took turns in trying to throw the dice and get a 6. Not always easy and some cheating is sometimes necessary but a few of the residents scored a 6 and this followed with a cheer.

Lisa mentioned the importance of laughter as this is the best medicine. It was then time for the official opening of both the dementia club and the OM interactive and Juliana the care home’s award winning chef brought out a beautiful cake she made. Her artistic skills in cakes are to be admired as she is so talented.

This was followed with the official signing of the partnership – Carlton Court Care Home joining in Association with Dementia Club UK. Lisa then informed everyone that the OM interactive will now be presented in the next room and those that wanted to see it and play were welcome. Steven the activities coordinator who has had plenty of practice was happy to show everyone. Some of the residents who sat around the table really enjoyed it and their faces were lit up with joy and amazement. Even Rose from Saracens enjoyed a play.

Carlton Court Care Home is a good Care home and this I believe is credit to the manager Ginny Cheytan.

The next session is on the 12th September and this is open not only to residents but also to the local community. Well done to all the staff who set up and decorated the room today and of course Juliana who made some very tasty bits of food to go with the amazing cake.

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I’m pleased to report that this venue is now getting busier. We had 2 visitors today from Australia (mother and daughter) Whilst in the area they heard about Dementia Club UK and the daughter wanted to visit and bring her mother.

As usual members sit and chat over a cup of tea/coffee and cakes and Lisa also provides some Word Searches and quizzes for everyone keeping them busy. Richard then arrived to do chair yoga with the members. Richard knows exactly what to do to make the exercises challenging but fun especially when he shows members exercises to ‘Swing Low Sweet Charriot’ and the ‘Hokey Cokey’ with slightly different words.

For the final part of the session Lisa got everyone singing to some of the favourite songs. It was an enjoyable session

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As usual Stephens House and Gardens was setup impeccably ready to receive members. Lisa was not present today as her mum has had a fall and is in hospital with her broken hip.

Mark and Valerie one of the other trustees welcomed everyone and made sure everyone had some refreshments. We started with a quiz that Lisa had prepared a previous day.

James Bernard was our star singer today. He sung a collection of swing numbers, everyone got up to dance. We all had a great time.

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A busy session as usual. Lisa welcomed everyone and provide members with some pictures to colour whilst having their teas and cakes and chats.

Lisa provided members with updates on the outings soon and also talked about programme of events at other dementia clubs. She also distributed some leaflets providing information about Dementia Club UK Social Media. There is often confusion when people are donating to Dementia Club UK as some people donate to Dementia UK.

Everyone was grateful for this information. Lisa then read some jokes from a new joke book which everyone enjoyed and then started a multiple choice quiz. As always this is challenging but everyone enjoys working together on their table to get the right answers.

It was a pleasure to welcome back 2 members of the Barnet Walking Football Team who enjoyed sitting with the members and helping during the session. We then played musical bingo and this got members singing and some of the members up dancing. It was an enjoyable session.

Thank you to our volunteers Lizzy, Melvyn, Melissa Dr Angela, our other Angela volunteer and of course Mark.

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Session leaders Helen and Mollie with Ritu and Mark set up the tables and chairs in the room ready and prepared a delicious early afternoon tea for members and visitors on arrival.

We’re building up a bright collection of completed 60s colouring in patterns, always a therapeutic activity to do over tea and chat, whilst waiting for session leader Danielle to make the opening welcome. Chairman Lisa ran through forthcoming events and mentioned the various recent promotions she has implemented to spread the word of the various groups we run.

After a quick vote, the members decided to start with a general knowledge quiz, which was very entertaining and everyone enjoyed participating. This was then followed by a game of Bingo which and was won this month by Rotarian Mrinal’s wife, first time supporter, Rama.

It was then time for some exercises as Richard arrived. Everyone joined in the chair yoga exercises and, true to say, we always have a laugh doing this with his entertaining banter. Delighted to welcome some first time visitors, including Simone with Mabel and Kevin, as well as Joy with Irene and Rita, and the lovely Ruth who excelled when it was time to dance to James’ popular songs.

It was lovely also to see Lisa and her husband Mark on the dance floor. Thanks to James’ partner Joy for getting people up dancing and Rotarians Selwyn and Suresh for joining in the music quiz. Dr Nandini was on hand for any medical and community questions.

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It was a very warm humid day today so there were only a few members. It was still however an enjoyable session.

Lisa brought out the colouring books and crayons and Word-searches which kept members busy and chatting at the same time whilst having their cups of teas and coffees and cakes.

Annalisa then did some chair exercises with members which was great fun as she also got them to mimic the actions of what they do every day to get ready in the morning.

The session followed with James Le Bec who as always is amazing with everyone getting them to sing and dance and also to guess the songs and throw the big dice. Although a small group they did really well with gaining a high score in the music game.

Thanks today to Lisa and Mark helping throughout the session and also to Annalisa and Jalpa. It looks like our next session will be in the new building which is exciting.

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This was a small group today and we were all in the hall as the Church organ was undergoing some major restoration.

Our volunteers – Brenda, Dorothy and Sue were as usual ready and waiting and had already organised the plates with biscuits. Lisa however also brought some of her left over chocolate birthday cake from yesterday which went down a treat.

Andrew the Church Warden had also brought the round tables downstairs to the hall and had them as usual covered in their tablecloths. Our Rotarians were also ready to greet everyone – Malcolm, Victor and Jim. Simon our quiz master although not able to attend had prepared a quiz and made sure it was delivered to Lisa.

When everyone was settled, Lisa welcomed everyone and informed them about some of the outings organised. She then read out the answers to the quiz as members found them quite hard.

Richard then arrived to do some chair yoga with everyone which is always challenging but fun. The session then followed with James Le Bec and as always James has a magical way of interacting with members and captures their attention. The dice game which is played trying to guess the name of the song is always fun and gets very competitive as each person who throws the dice tries to roll a six.

A lovely afternoon. Thank you to all our volunteers today especially Andrew who had to bring all the tables down which was hard work.

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