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Today’s session was the first session following the BBC Inside Out programme about Dementia Club UK. Many of the members that attended were featured in the TV programme so everyone was feeling very upbeat.

Muz and Faz presented Lisa with some flowers to thank her for her incredible achievements with Dementia Club UK. The members praised the TV coverage and discussed the idea of making a TV series in the future so more time could be dedicated to the topic.

Whilst members enjoyed their teas, coffees and lovely cakes, there were several games to keep the members occupied which were themed around TV, given there had just been a TV documentary on Dementia Club UK. Members were given 41 letter cards and had to make 5 single word TV programmes. Everyone managed to get the answer right surprisingly quickly. This followed with a verbal quiz about famous TV double-acts. Everyone contributed and suggested their favourite double acts.

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Muz then introduced a card game where people had to match the famous couples together. Everyone loved playing the game. There was also colouring and word searches so there was something to keep everyone occupied before Richard took over with seated exercise. Richard’s session was lovely with everyone enjoying their stretches and working out their muscles.

After the exercise session, members were entertained with a variety of games that included golf putting, a bowling green and table tennis. Everyone was having lots of fun with the variety of activities. Sotiris was elated when he got a hole in one. It was fantastic watching Mabel enjoy the golf and seeing Viv and Brian get stuck in to the bowling. The session concluded with a sing-a-long of Que Sera Sera which everyone really enjoyed.

This was a very enjoyable session and big thanks to Lisa, Mark and to Pat, one of the carers and Annette for helping out today.

Considering the bad weather yesterday and today, we again had a full house turnout at our lovely new venue in The Finchley Cricket Clubhouse – 30 members, Mark (a Trustee), Rotarians Sheila, Michael, Dick and myself

Julian and Jacqueline set the tables and prepared a lovely afternoon tea of sandwiches and cakes and biscuits and hot drinks and served on each table. Thank you to all our volunteers and carers today for helping to serve

Lisa welcomed members and provided some programme updates and also reminded members about the BBC1 film tonight. As today was a special Jewish holiday celebrating “Tu Bishvat”, Lisa explained that in Israel the day is celebrated as an ecological awareness day and trees are planted in celebration in honour or in memory of loved ones and friends. It’s the Jewish Festival of trees and also marks the beginning of Spring. It is also traditionally celebrated by eating lots of grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates

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Lisa then talked about the importance of trees and how planting trees is important to stop climate change. A quiz then followed about trees and how some leaves from trees are used to treat various symptoms. Lisa lastly mentioned that Barnet Council was awarded the 2019 London Borough Tree Award after pledging to plant 900 trees per year for the next 5 years

Lisa then distributed to all members a “Tu Bishvat” greeting card picture of a fruit tree in colour and also distributed another picture of an outline of a tree asking members to colour their own tree. Members were very interested and enjoyed doing the colouring.

Lisa then introduced Julian, Chairman of The Finchley Cricket Club to say a few words about the Club and its history. Julian gave us a very interesting talk about the Club, which was founded in the 1830s and has had many famous Cricketers over the years and more recently has hosted quite a few Women’s teams, who are doing better than the men!

We then met the lovely Sian who took our seated exercises. She certainly kept everyone’s attention with great music and exercises. Many people commented how they enjoyed her session.

This was then followed with music entertainment by Ian who got everyone up and dancing. This was followed with a music quiz where members who get the right answer also get to throw the big soft red dice to try and get a six. We scored 138 with some jiggery-pokery cheating.

We all went home to watch Lisa on BBC 1 “Inside Out London.” I must congratulate Lisa on a great performance and for showing Dementia Club UK in such a great light. I’m sure you’ll get great feedback and many enquiries from this superb documentary about your work in starting up this wonderful support for sufferers in the community.

WELL DONE ! Valerie Chodosh Trustee 

 This is always a very enjoyable session. Whilst members were enjoying their teas/coffees and cakes, Lisa welcomed everyone and provided some programme updates. This is always a favourite time as members enjoy chatting together whilst also being busy colouring some beautiful pictures with magic water painting. 

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The fabulous Richard then led our Yoga session which all members participated and enjoyed. Then our talented Aaron entertained our members with a variety of popular songs which members and volunteers danced. Aaron then did a music quiz which is always a great challenge and lot of cheating when rolling the dice to try and get a six.

Thank you to day to Rotary Club Northwick Park volunteers – Helen our session leader, Mollie and Ritu for making the teas and coffees and serving them to members and of course Mark one of our Trustees for all his help throughout the session.

Our monthly Dementia Club UK session was held on the 3rd February at Sha’arei Tsedek Synagogue in Whetstone.

Our members were served tea, coffee, delicious biscuits and cake at the start of our session and were happy chatting to each other.

The fabulous Jane then led an exercise session which all our members participated in and enjoyed.

It was Keith, one of our amazing volunteers, birthday and we gave him a birthday cake and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him! He was very chuffed!

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Then the very talented Aaron entertained our members with a variety of popular songs to which many of the members and helpers danced. He also did a music quiz and everyone got very involved in guessing the artists!

32 members and carers attended the session with the assistance of eight helpers who were:- Justine, Gilda, Stephen, Caroline, Keith, Dot, Judy & Risom.

It was a busy session today as we were also joined by a group from Aarundel Manor Care Home. Lisa welcomed everyone and provided some programme updates and other news. She introduced Muz and Faz as the session leaders and welcomed and thanked all the volunteers. Lisa had a surprise visit from Sarah who used as a volunteer for the dementia club and she very kindly gave a small soft memory ball as a gift to Dementia Club UK. Everyone thanked Sarah and wished her all the best for the future.

Muz and Faz started the session with some fun games on the tables and also handed out some colouring in while everyone had their teas and coffees. Whilst chatting to one of the members Muz was inspired to do a fun game using the phonetic alphabet. Another member then decided to recount the phonetic alphabet in German and amazed us all!

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The session then followed with Richard who always runs a fun packed seated Yoga session. As well as making everyone work their muscles, Richard also uses humour to make exercising fun and as it was also Brexit Day he also added a joke to mark the occasion.

After the seated exercise, Muz decided to also use the memory ball that Sarah had brought and started to throw the ball around to members asking them to catch it and share a memory. The members enjoyed sharing facts about themselves. There was an avid gardener in the room. Someone recounted that their longest journey ever had been to Tunisia. Amongst the memories, we also found out that Doris Day was a member’s favourite singer. Lisa then played some music and distributed the lyrics to all the members. This was like turning on the light in the room as members started singing and were also up and dancing.

The room was now buzzing with joy and everyone was having lots of fun so we brought the games over to the dance area. There was a tin can alley game, a ball throwing game and a hoop throwing game where Muz even became a table for the target cone to rest on! Finally, there was table tennis to finish the afternoon. Some members played seated but today there was also a table for people to play standing up, which some members thoroughly enjoyed.

[Everyone had a really fun afternoon with lots of games, singing and dancing.

Thank you to our Rotarians from Mill Hill – Rotary Club President Desmond, Bobsie, Jeanette & Graham and thank you also to our other volunteers – Theresa, Annette, Risom and of course Lisa.

Members were very studious today. They were concentrating on their word searches whilst also enjoying their teas/coffees and biscuits and cakes. There was also time for a quick quiz on True and False questions which the member also enjoyed as some of the questions were challenging. Eon then arrived to do the exercise and as usual gets everyone moving and having fun.

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The session then followed with Ian James with his music entertainment. Ian played some great favourites which soon got some members up dancing and other singing. It was a very enjoyable session.

Thank you today to Risom who was are only volunteer. Thank you also of course to Mark.

The first Dementia Club session of the New Year went very well. We had a very good attendance, 15 of our members plus two guests Maria and Pam who also brought her cute little dog Lottie to meet all the members.

Muz and Faz had already set out on each table some colouring for members to do whilst they were enjoying their teas and coffees and lovely cakes and biscuits. Lisa welcomed everyone and gave some updates and also thanked all the volunteers.

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Muz and Faz then started the session with their colourful table tennis, set up for 8 players. The players were asked to roll, bounce and throw the tennis ball and hit it with tennis rackets to the person sitting opposite. The members that took part enjoyed themselves, as shown in the photos below, and table tennis balls were flying everywhere – keeping the volunteers busy catching the balls. The other members that did not take part were given some pictures to colour using colourful pencils.

The session then continued with the usual sitting down yoga with Richard. Richard did some interesting exercises for about 30 minutes. As usual all the members enjoyed the exercises and all joined in and had a laugh.

The yoga was followed by our new music entertainer Aaron. Everybody joined in the singing. Aaron sang some very popular songs which made quite a few members get up and dance. We had a surprise when Terry, one of our members, took the microphone from Aaron and sang, James also joined him. Aaron then started the music quiz asking members to identify the songs and singers by playing a few notes and if they guessed them correctly then they were asked to throw the large red fluffy dice. The aim of course is to try and throw a six to get a high score and beat the previous score from another dementia club. The members enjoyed themselves by getting a lot of points. Unfortunately the score was not high enough this time. The challenge is always fun.

Thank you to our church volunteers Dorothy and Sue for making teas and coffees and Andrew the church warden for setting up the venue. Thank you also to our Rotarians from Barnet; John, Jim, Malcolm and Victor. Thank you to Muz and Faz for providing fun activities. Also, many thanks to Annette for her assistance, Doctor Rebecca Hatjiosif for her support, plus Lisa and Mark for their continuous support making the Dementia Club at St John’s Church successful.