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The BBC also attended the Care Home today. TLC management, staff and carers from the care home were very excited by this visit and many of the residents were also very excited to be filmed.

The BBC wanted to conclude their filming at the care home showing Dementia Club UK in action. Lisa had also organised music entertainment with James Bernard who was equally excited to perform for the BBC. It didn’t take long for residents, care staff and other visitors to be up dancing and having a great time.

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The care home Chef Julianna made some beautiful little cakes and sandwiches presented on a tier rack. It looked like afternoon tea at the Ritz. Well done to Juliana.

Thank you to all the care staff and carers at Carlton Court for organising and preparing for the BBC’s visit and also for preparing the residents in time for the dementia club. It was a very busy session but also very exciting.

I’m delighted to report that our launch today with BETTER Kentish Town Sports Centre was a great success.

It was lovely to see the number of people who attended. A number of organisations were also invited;

• North London Carers – Juliet McNally
• Camden Memory Service – Christopher Denney
• Age UK Camden – Gabriela Garbutt
• Imperial College London – Lesley and Monika
• Camden Carers – Carol

Local people in the area who also heard about the launch were interested to visit because they knew someone with dementia and they wanted to visit first to see what it was like.

Andrew Gilbert (Community Sport Manager) welcomed everyone and said how delighted and excited he was that Kentish Town Sports Centre was joining in Association with Dementia Club UK and was looking forward to a continuous successful future together. Andrew then introduced Lisa – Chairman and founder of Dementia Club UK to say a few words.

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Lisa gave a brief introduction about Dementia Club UK and how it started and how she was delighted to have opened a second out of the borough dementia club with BETTER Kentish Town Sports Centre. Lisa then mentioned that the venue brought back memories as it used to be the old baths. Lisa grew up in the local area and her parents used to visit the old baths regularly. It’s lovely to see the old pictures on the wall which makes interesting history about the venue before it was converted to a sports centre.

The speeches proceeded to the official signing to confirm that BETTER Kentish Town Sports Centre are now joined in Association with Dementia Club UK. This was signed by Andrew Gilbert and Adriana Duarte (Community Sports Officer).

A group photo was then taken with David White (Partnership Manager, Camden) who also attended the launch. This was followed with a celebration cake and a cake firework candle which everyone enjoyed watching.

It was then time for some music entertainment with the Timeless Performers Wayne and Charlie who were amazing and interacted with everyone getting them up dancing and singing. It was a successful afternoon and everyone commented how they really enjoyed themselves and looked forward to attending the next session which will include games, chair fitness and entertainment.

A big thank you to Andrew and Adriana for organising and setting up the room beautifully for the launch including snacks and healthy fruit for our guests and thank you also to Mark one of the Trustees of Dementia Club UK who was very busy looking after everyone who attended providing them with their teas and coffees.

Today’s session was led by Annette.

It was a well-attended busy session and we had two new members. The session began with the welcoming of members, registration and offering them tea, coffee and biscuits as usual. Announcements were made and the updated programmes for the rest of the year were distributed.

It was a day of Poetry. Members were encouraged to write poems and put their thoughts, feelings etc on paper, which they did. The role of poetry in the lives of people was emphasised and members were encouraged to write their own poems which they did; individually and in some cases as a group.

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Volunteers read the poems out (Theresa, Melvyn, Lizzy and Kevin) and one of our Trustees, Angela, read out a poem too. Some were popular poems; others were written by volunteers and members. Members all had a great time and enjoyed listening to each other’s poems.

The entertainers Wayne and Charlie were great and everyone had a great time, singing and dancing.

The atmosphere was electrifying and full of positive energy. Thank you to our volunteers – Melvyn, Lizzy Theresa, Dr Angela and Kevin for all their help during this session.

Today’s session was led by Justine and supported by her volunteers from the Synagogue.

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

Stephen (one of our wonderful Volunteers) gave a short presentation on Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) as we have recently celebrated Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is this Wednesday. Our members were very interested to learn about our High Holy Days and asked lots of questions.

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Lisa (Our Chairman) brought in Dementia Club UK’s very own portable Magic Table from a company called OM Interactive. This is a portable device that allows each of the different Dementia Club UK venues to use it rather than it being installed in a permanent venue. It is a type of projector that projects games onto a table which people can interact with their hands. This is a very special piece of equipment which are members thoroughly enjoyed using (as did the volunteers!) We feel extremely lucky to be able to see this in action!

For more details on the company see: https://omi.uk/

This was followed by a lively session of entertainment provided by the very talented James LeBec and his lovely assistant, Joy! James sang a variety of popular songs to which many of the members and helpers danced. It was great fun! He also did a music quiz and our members had to guess the name of the song! The atmosphere was fantastic and we were all very competitive.

After James left, the members continued to chat and there was also table tennis, mini golf, jumbo dominos and darts! 32 members and carers attended the session with the assistance of seven helpers from the synagogue who were:- Justine, Gilda, Stephen, Mark, Dot, Judy, Keith & Caroline.

Today’s session was in the café area which was very successful.

Lisa welcomed everyone and after their teas and coffees and cakes they were ready to do some exercises with Annalisa who always makes exercising fun

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It was then time for some music entertainment and James Le Bec sang some old time classics which members enjoyed singing and dancing. The challenge then begins when James brings out his big soft dice to play name that tune. There is always a previous score to beat from other organisations but members make sure to try and beat the score with a little bit of footwear cheating!!

Great fun and lots of laughter. Thank you to Mark for helping throughout the session.