Blog

This was our first session today in the new Barnet Copthall building. Lisa, Mark and Sandra a member of the GLL staff took members around to show the new complex. The members were very impressed especially with the 3 new swimming pools.

We all then settled in the Club Lounge which is an L shaped room which is directly opposite the lifts and next to the Gym on the first floor. Members enjoyed their teas and cakes and then it was time for some exercise. As Annalisa was away another instructor called Sandra took the exercise session. She was great with the members as she made exercising fun.

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It was then time for our music entertainer James Le Bec who as always gets everyone up and dancing. His name that tune with the dice is also a great hit with members as they get very excited throwing and trying to get a six. It was a very enjoyable session.

Thank you to Sandra for taking the exercise session and thank you to Lisa and Mark for running the session.

The meeting on 3rd September at the Baden-Powel Centre , John Keeble Church,was one of fun and laughter.

A warm welcome followed by refreshments and a chat was the start of a fun and interactive afternoon. Mabel and Gunam showed us their creative skills with their water colour art.

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On Richard’s arrival for his Chair Yoga session,everyone including the team of helpers, positioned their chairs and took part. It was Chair Yoga with a twist, Richard made his exercises entertaining by adding in some Cricket Umpire hand gestures and arm movements and explained what each one meant.

James Le Beck entertained us with his music, and his music quiz,and lifted our spirits by getting us all on the dance floor!!! His music quiz is always great fun and very competitive. The aim for each member is to throw and get a six but sometimes interventions are necessary. You know when it has becomes very competitive when James would run after the dice as it rolls to tackle Helen who is helping the dice to land as a six.

The team of helpers from Northwick Park Rotary club were, Helen, Mollie, June, Ritu and President Rochelle, and from Edgware and Stanmore were Selwyn and Suresh Thank you to all named for making the afternoon great fun not only for our visitors but also for themselves.

Our monthly Dementia Club UK session was held on the 2nd September at Sha’arei Tsedek Synagogue in Whetstone.

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

The lovely Jane then took an exercise session with our members which they all participated in and enjoyed.

This was followed by the very talented James LeBec! and his assistant Joy. James sang a variety of popular songs to which many of the members and helpers danced. He also did a music quiz and our members had to guess the name of the song! It was very funny & very competitive! James told us that we had won last month’s competition with an amazing score of 131 point!!! 3 cheers for Sha’arei Tsedek Dementia Club UK!

18 members and carers attended the session with the assistance of seven helpers from the synagogue who were:- Justine, Gilda, Stephen, Caroline, Mark, Dot & Judy.

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This is one of the dementia clubs which we have taken over from the Alzheimer’s Society and pleased to report that this dementia club has now increased in numbers.

Our Rotary Club volunteers from Mill Hill attended – Jeanette and Graham, Jane, Rotary President Desmond and his wife Bobsie and their visitor Ray.

We also had 2 new members. Lisa welcomed everyone and gave out some magic painting pictures with paint brushes and also gave out some word searches which are always popular. Everyone enjoyed doing those whilst chatting and drinking their teas/coffees and eating their biscuits.

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Whilst some of the members were working hard on their magic painting pictures Lisa also decided to do a multiple choice quiz for the rest of the members. Lisa read out the questions and members working in a team of 3 tables wrote the answers on a piece of paper. As usual members always claim the quiz is too hard but they all enjoy the challenge and enjoy multiple choice quizzes.

After enough exercising for our brain, it was now time for some fun. Lisa did some music and singing with the usual favourite songs which members enjoyed and then it was time to unveil to OM interactive. This was the first time today. Lisa bought the mobile OM interactive for the charity with the support of Saracens so that it can be taken to all the dementia clubs.

Lisa has chosen to name the mobile OM interactive – OM – R2D2 which fans of Star Wars would know. Mark was supervising and showing the various games and all members in turn including our Rotarians were happy to have a go. It brought many smiles to everyone and some challenging moments. It was a very enjoyable session.

Thank you to all our Rotarian volunteers for their help during the session. Thank you to Sarah who always attend and helps with the teas and coffees and of course thank you to Lisa the Chairman who led the session and Mark one of the Trustees for his help throughout the session.

Another lovely afternoon at the dementia club at Hendon Town Hall. We had a full house with record number of members, guests and volunteers. It was a pleasure to welcome the Rotary District Chair of Nigeria Hauwa Abbas who explained some of the important work Rotary International are doing to eradicate Hepatitis.

It is a huge challenge involving all of Africa’s 54 countries simultaneously. Half a million free tests will be carried out on the population to detect the virus. To read more about the campaign, the link below provides details of the recent Hepatitis – Zero week in Africa in July 2019.

https://hepatitiszeroweek.com/projects/hepatitis-zero-week-africa-2019

It was also a pleasure to meet Isabella a University student from Cambridge studying medicine. She was very grateful for the opportunity to attend the dementia club to learn about dementia.

Lisa welcomed members and provided them with some pictures to colour and some word searches to complete which are always very popular. This kept members busy and chatting at the same time whilst enjoying their teas/coffees and biscuits.

Our in-house exercise guru Eon then arrived and lead the chair exercise session. As usual Eon provided everyone with a good whole body workout and introduced some colourful elasticated ropes to the chair exercises similar to using dyna bands. It’s always a great workout with Eon and always fun too.

The afternoon ended with our resident musician Dennis who gets everyone up and dancing with his lovely choice of music.

A special thanks goes to our volunteers from Rotary Club of Hendon Charlyn, Michelle and Eugenia, Rita and our guests Hauwa and her mother Rita, Isabella and Humphrey – Charlyn’s cousin and of course Lisa our Chairman who led the session today and Mark one of the Trustees who also helped throughout the session.

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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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