Category: Blog

A very busy session as usual. Lisa decorated the tables today with daffodils especially as Mothers Day was in a few days and informed everyone that they could take the daffodils home at the end of the session.

Lisa welcomed and thanked all the volunteers and also introduced 2 new volunteers today Angela and Rosa who received a warm welcome from everyone. Lisa also reminded everyone that Dr Angela was also in attendance to take blood pressures and provide any medical advice to members.

Lisa then introduced two visitors from Constantia Care – Morag Collier who is the Manager and Ellie Edwards who is Deputy Manager. They gave a short presentation about the type of care they provide and then there was an opportunity for members to ask questions.

It was then time for music entertainment with Moshe and as usual Moshe gets everyone up and dancing as he is able to play and sing a variety of songs in many languages. It was a fun afternoon and everyone left with a smile.

My thanks to my volunteers Dr Angela and Mark our Trustees, Lindsey, Melvyn, Melissa and of course our new volunteers.

A good attendance to today’s session. We had 25 members including some members from Friends in Need. We registered four new persons who became members of Dementia Club UK.

The session started as usual with members chatting and enjoying their teas, coffees, biscuits and cakes. Simon, our Rotary quiz master, then distributed his quiz, which consisted of 10 anagrams of famous persons. The members found the questions a bit more difficult than usual, however, they enjoyed themselves trying to find the answers.

After the quiz Richard, our yoga exercises teacher, did about 30 minutes of chair yoga exercises. Richard introduced colourful scarves to make the exercises more enjoyable. All attendees joined in and had a very enjoyable time.

The yoga session was then followed with our entertainer James Le Bec who sang songs selected by the members. James then asked the members to identify various songs and when they guessed them correctly, they were asked to throw a large dice to get points. Unfortunately, the total number of points during this session were well below other Dementia Clubs.

We also had a member’s birthday today, and all the members sang Happy Birthday. The members enjoyed listening to James’s songs and joined in singing and dancing.

Thank you to our church volunteers for making teas and coffees, setting up the venue and making the necessary preparations for the sessions; Dorothy, Sue and Andrew.

Thank you also to our Rotarians from Barnet; Jim (President), John, Victor, Malcolm and Simon. Many thanks to our Doctor Rebecca Hatjiosif for attending. Also, thanks to Mark and Lisa the Chairman of Dementia Club UK, for their continuous support making the Dementia Club at St John’s Church so successful.

Today is a special day as the 25th March celebrates Greek Independence Day. It was even more special to be able to celebrate at the Greek Britannia Centre.

The session started with a quiz which is always a good way to start a session as it gets everyone to chat together to try and get the right answers.

Joanna then arrived to do some Chi Kung exercises. Members look forward to these exercises as it helps them and teaches them how to relax and breath properly especially at stressful times.

The session then followed with our music entertainment with Ronnie. It was lovely to be able to celebrate Pamela and John’s 55 years wedding anniversary. To mark the occasion, Lisa asked Ronnie to play them their favourite song to dance to and everyone gave their best wishes. There was lots of dancing and everyone was very happy.

My thanks to my volunteers Mark who is one of the Trustees, Melissa and her husband Bob and Marina.

A busy session as usual. Lisa welcomed everyone and gave members a picture quiz to name some famous landmarks and statues.

This was challenging as usual but it promoted some interesting history talks.

Lisa then introduced 2 ladies – JoJo McEwen & Fabienne Aurora, two newly qualified dentists who came to talk about oral hygiene and how to look after your teeth. It was very interesting to hear lots of good tips and advice on what to avoid eating and drinking.

Members had some very good questions and appreciated all the good advice. It was then time for some music and members enjoyed singing and dancing to some of the favourites whilst others played with the Tovertafel. It was an enjoyable session.

Thank you to our volunteers Lizzy, Melvyn, Dr Angela, Melissa and Mark.

Dr French care home at 13 Nether Street, N12 7NN invited me to their launch event today. They recently purchased a magic table.

The equipment is from OM Interactive and the unit is mobile so that it can be easily moved to different rooms.

There are 300 applications to choose from which is absolutely amazing and I could see that the residents were engrossed with the various images and sounds and enjoyed playing.

I was particularly impressed to see the Queen’s Coronation.

I would like to thank Marilyn the Manager and Patricia for inviting me.

Our first out of the Borough Dementia Club was launched today which was a great success. Many people attended.

It was a pleasure to welcome our special guests – The Elstree & Borehamwood Town Mayor Cllr Victor Eni and the Chairman of Saracens Nigel Wray. Other guests who attended was the President of the Rotary Club of Elstree & Borehamwood – Cllr Cynthia Barker and other Rotarian members and Councillors from Elstree & Borehamwood and Hertsmere & Hertfordshire Council.

Lisa welcomed everyone and then introduced the Mayor to say a few words before the cutting of the celebration cake. Lisa invited Nigel to also cut the cake together with the Mayor.

We are very grateful to the Head chef Juliana from Carlton Court Care Home in Barnet for making the cake and donating it to Dementia Club UK with a number of beautifully decorated cup cakes.

Richard then arrived to do some chair Yoga with everyone. Richard has a great way of making exercising great fun. It was then time for Elvis.

Pete Webb as Elvis is amazing and is always a great hit as he interacts with everyone.

The launch was a great success. Everyone enjoyed the buffet selection of M&S sandwiches and delicious cakes.

My thanks to my helpers Mark, Dr Angela and Valerie – Trustees of Dementia Club UK. My thanks to Marina and Andreas for helping with setting up and during the session. Many thanks also to Annette one of my experienced volunteer leaders who was also very helpful and introduced Nigel to the members. Thank you also to Melissa, Dr Angela’s friend who was also very helpful and is always the life of any party.

My thanks also to the staff at The Venue for setting up the tables and chairs. My thanks to the Hertfordshire County Council for giving us a small grant for this launch. Everyone had a great time and left with many smiles.

Today’s session was led by Annette:

We had a great time as usual at the cafe yesterday. We spent the first half an hour on conversation about different questions that were picked by members.

The second half was spent on drawing and writing positive thoughts about themselves on magic sheets of paper.

Terry’s birthday was celebrated with a birthday song and blowing out his candles.

Dennis turned up on time to entertain us all. Members sang and danced and we had a great time.

Members really enjoy attending the sessions at Copthall. Although this is a temporary venue until the new building is ready, members have great fun.

We also had 2 new volunteers join today – Stella and Zara. Lisa welcomed everyone and gave them some magic painting to do which they all enjoyed doing very much.

Lisa also did a short quiz about the year 1955. This was a year which was picked by one of the members. The questions for that year promted some very interesting events that took place during that year which members found interesting.

It was then time for Annalisa with her fitness exercises for members and today Annalisa wanted to concentrate on the lowere part of the body. Members always enjoy the exercises with Annalisa as she makes it fun.

It was then time for our music entertainment with James Le Bec and as usual this always gets members up and dancing. James’ ‘name that tune’ and rolling the Dice is also great fun as the challenge is trying to get a number 6 in the throw so that we get a high score and beat other organisations. A great fun afternoon.

Thank you to Annalisa today for all her help in setting up and clearing up after and also Mark (one of the Trustrees) who helps throughout the session and all the lifting and carrying.

There were many people as usual today. Everyone first wanted to hear about Lisa’s Buckingham Palace visit and her meeting with Prince Charles. Everyone was pleased to hear about it.

We had a lovely surprise visit from Annette and Eleanor today. Everyone gave them both a warm welcome. Lisa welcomed all the members and began with informing members that today was Ash Wednesday which always follows after Shrove Tuesday. Lisa read out some examples of how various cultures celebrate Ash Wednesday which members found very interesting.

Lisa then introduced a visitor Neil Aitken from ‘The Wayback. Neil was just visiting today with a view to attending again at a future session to do a presentation of his product. Lisa asked Neil to introduce himself and mention briefly about the product which members found interesting. The product uses simple technology to show a virtual reality film designed to trigger memories and spark conversations for those living with dementia, their carers and loved ones. Neil went on to say:

The Wayback is a virtual reality film series designed to trigger memories and spark conversations for those living with dementia, their carers and loved ones. The 360-degree films immerse the viewer in incredibly detailed, recreated, positive moments from the past – which evoke the feelings that went with them – in order to create positive connections and conversations in the present. Using simple technology, our ambition is to share these films with as many people living with dementia as possible, their carers and families, helping them to remain connected to the people around them and maintaining their identity.

There was a birthday to celebrate today. Maria who attends with her husband Donato was celebrating her 94th birthday. As with the usual Dementia Club UK tradition of celebrating birthdays, Lisa brought out the birthday cake with the firework candle and everyone sang.

Lisa then introduced Lizzy’s poetry book called ‘A Poet’s Emotions’ by Liz Ragout which can be found here, Lizzy who is one of our new volunteers has written quite a few poems which have been published. Members applauded Lizzy and were very interested to hear a couple of the poems which Lisa read out.

Lisa followed with reading a few jokes which everyone loves and then it was time to introduce the special visitor Tess – a beautiful collie. She was brought by Niamh and Bill from Therapaws. Tess received a lot of attention from members as Bill was taking her around the room. All the members were delighted and Tess was even dancing with one of the members to music. Members definitely would like to see Tess again as she was a great hit with everyone.

The session then followed with Tovertafel and as usual this is always great fun for members. This was a very enjoyable session and everyone left with happy smiles.

Thank you to our volunteers – Mark (one of our Trustees), Melvyn, Lizzy, Annette and Eleanor.