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Lisa was invited as a special guest today to attend the care home’s fun open day.

It was lovely to see so many residents and their families at the Open Day. The sunny hot weather made it even more special. Lisa attended with Mark her husband and they were looked after by Fran the Manager and Kaye one of the management staff and offered some refreshments.{gallery}CEDAR20190628{/gallery}

Everyone was having lovely time with music entertainment. The entertainer was dressed in a Pearly King outfit and played and sang some old songs.

Fran then introduced Lisa to say a few words. Lisa was informed that all the residents took part in painting a very big painting of The White Cliffs of Dover. In fact some residents still had paint on their hands. Lisa was also shown another painting that residents made previously from the film The Sound of Music.

Lisa congratulated the residents for their beautiful works of art. Lisa was then presented with a beautiful pot of flowers which was a lovely surprise.

Before leaving Lisa went to talk to some of the residents and families and just before leaving, care staff surprised Fran with a birthday cake. Fran celebrated her 70th birthday last year and had no idea Care staff were going to surprise her again this year. Fran was very overwhelmed by the surprise birthday.

Lisa would like to thank Fran the care home manager and Kaye for the invitation today. It was so lovely to see all the residents having so much fun and also wonderful to hear from the families what an outstanding care home it is and how lucky they are to have such an amazing care home manager and great care staff.

Summer is finally upon us and members of Dementia Club UK at today’s session in Hendon Town Hall felt the heat. Refreshments were ready to be served as members arrived needing to cool off.{gallery}HTH20190627{/gallery}

Members and their carers preferred to have long and interesting conversations amongst each other rather than any other activities. This is one of the beauty and flexibility of the sessions at Dementia Club UK and session leaders being able to adapt to members wishes.

The session would not be complete without Eon our exercise guru putting us through our paces with soft exercises. However he decided today to increase the pace a little and got us all working a lot harder. We were out of breath at the end of the session but it was thoroughly enjoyable.

Our resident musician for Dementia Club UK – Dennis was also in attendance. Dennis performed different genre of music to delight members, carers and volunteers who danced and sang along with pleasure.

Special thanks goes out to volunteers from Rotary Club of Hendon Charlyn and Eugenia who are also session leaders, Stella a friend of the Club, Lisa and Mark Rutter and other family carers present.

The session was led by Dr Angela Parker today as Lisa was away at a meeting in town.

Members enjoyed looking at a selection of books brought in by Dr Parker covering children’s stories and nursery rhymes. When members finished their teas and coffees, Dr Parker gave a short talk about looking after each other in the hot weather – making sure that you keep hydrated properly as well as using shade and suntan cream.{gallery}FMH20190626{/gallery}

The time went quickly when Moshe arrived to give a great musical recital of various favourites which included new and old time music. There was some Karaoke and many joined in singing and there were a lot of energetic dancers.

Members were reminded that next Wednesday is the outing to Southend with the coach leaving at 10 am from the Finchley Memorial car park.

Thank you to the volunteers today Melissa, Melvin and Arzu for their help during the session. Great team work running the sessions smoothly in the absence of our Lisa.

As members arrived Lisa welcomed them. They also received a warm welcome from Rotarians Jim, Malcolm and Victor who are always happy to sit and chat with the members.

As always Andrew the Church warden makes sure that all the tables are set up and Dorothy and Brenda always ensure members are served with their teas and coffees and cakes straight away.{gallery}SJNB20190625{/gallery}

Lisa then gave out some quiz questions to the members. The quiz was organised by Simon our quiz master who was absent today but made sure that the quiz was delivered. Today’s quiz was about naming some famous brands. Most of the brands were easy but there were a few tricky ones which made it challenging. The quiz also brought back some memories and Lisa got members to talk about them.

It was then time for some exercise and as Richard was away, we had a new Yoga teacher – Kathryn Jackman. Members really enjoyed the exercises with Kathryn who not only made them work hard but also made it fun.

Members were now ready for their music entertainment with James and as usual James knows the right type of music to get members interested. The music quiz game is also a great enjoyment as members like the challenge to get as many points as possible.

Everyone then enjoys a good dance before going home. Thank you to all our volunteers and of course Mark one of our Trustees who also helped during the session.

A very warm humid day but quite a few members arrived including a couple of new members. Lisa welcomed members and introduced some quizzes for them to do whilst they enjoyed their teas and coffees and lovely cakes and chatting.{gallery}GBC20190624{/gallery}

Joanna then arrived to do some Chi Kung chair exercises which the members found very relaxing. Members were then excited to see Peter Webb the Elvis entertainer arrive. He soon got everyone up and dancing. Elvis makes everyone happy especially as he gets close to serenade. It was a very enjoyable session.

Dementia Club UK celebrates The Rotary Club of Elstree and Borehamwood joining in Association with Dementia Club UK on Monday 17th June 2019 at The Venue Leisure Centre, Elstree Way, Borehamwood WD6 1JY.

The Mayor of Hertsmere Rabbi Cllr Alan Plancey was invited to launch the event with The Rotary Club President Cllr Cynthia Barker who is also the Deputy Mayor.

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Cllr. Lisa Rutter the Founder and Chairman of Dementia Club UK and Former Mayor of The London Borough of Barnet welcomed the Mayor and other guests and said a few words about the charity and also read out a poem which she had written. The Mayor followed to say a few words and congratulated Lisa for her work and stressed the importance of raising awareness to let people know of the help they can receive from this new dementia club.

The Mayor then proceeded to cut the cake together with Lisa and Cynthia and this was followed by the excellent music entertainment by Moshe Tamir who got people up and dancing very quickly. Everyone enjoyed the afternoon. A kosher buffet was also provided.

Lisa said – “I am delighted and honoured that The Mayor attended the launch. Everyone was so pleased to meet him. It was a very successful event. Dementia Club UK not only looks after those who suffer with dementia but also their carers and families and those who have lost someone with dementia and are now lonely. We provide information and advice, we have 2 GPs who attend most sessions, chair exercises, music entertainment and social activities. Sessions at Borehamwood are held on the 3rd Monday of every month. Our next session is on Monday 15th July at 1pm to 3pm and all are welcome.”

The session today was led by Annette and was as usual very full and lots of chatting and excitement.

Members know to arrive early to get a seat as they really look forward to attending. What a tremendous growth in such a short history of DCUK. Kudos to DCUK!

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After a welcome, I introduced Officials of Barnet Museum, Mike and Hillary who arrived with cases of items from the 1950s to share and elicit thoughts from members. They started with a quiz and even though I had informed them that our members were very good at this, they were truly surprised at how well they did and how much they enjoyed it.

Conversations were held, inspired by the objects they brought from the museum. Members really enjoyed looking at so many different items and talking about them.

This was followed by entertainment by Moshe. Delightful as usual! It was difficult bringing the session to an end because Moshe was as excited as the members if not more! There was of course dancing. Everyone had a very enjoyable afternoon and I am certainly privileged to be part of this beautiful family.