Blog

Today was our second session and first session in association with Edgware & Stanmore and Northwick Park. It was a lovely warm day and we had quite a few members attend.

Lisa welcomed everyone including our Rotarians from both clubs. Mollie, Helen, June, Lucile and Ritu all from Rotary Club Northwick Park and from Rotary Club Edgware & Stanmore – Danielle, Dr Nandini, Fran, Selwyn and Mrinal Choudhury.

It was also a real pleasure to see one of our regular volunteers Theresa and also one of the Trustees Dr Angela Parker who attended with her friend Melissa.

Lisa started with a quiz and informed members that she would provide the answers at the end. Lisa then read out 3 jokes which members really enjoyed and then Lisa introduced Dr Angela who gave a talk to members about shingles. This was however introduced in the form of a quiz and members were given picture cards and beach stones to try and guess what Dr Angela was going to talk about. After some thought one of the members guessed it was ‘shingles’.

The following is a note from Dr Angela Parker about Shingles

“Shingles, lovely on the roof as tiles, on the beach as beautiful soft pebbles but really not very nice on the skin as an illness with blistering spots and long term pain caused by nerve damage. Dr Parker introduced this diagnosis, and discussed the immunisation which provides some protection against shingles. The jab Zostavax is available free to restricted age groups under the NHS. The news of a new vaccine which is thought to give better protection to a wider range of ages is very welcome and we all look forward to it being evaluated quickly by the Public Health departments and hopefully being made freely available to older people.”

The following links take you to patients UK Shingles info sheet;

https://patient.info/medicine/shingles-vaccine-zostavax#nav-0

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/697573/Shingles_leaflet.pdf

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/shingles-vaccination/

Members were very grateful for this information from Dr Angela.

Richard then arrived and members were ready for their yoga which was really enjoyed by all. The session then followed with Ronnie who entertained everyone with his lovely music and everyone was up and dancing. Lisa also had some games around the room which some members enjoyed especially ball catching and Putting golf.

It was a very successful enjoyable session and thank you to all our volunteers for their help during the session.

Today was a fun packed session. Lisa first gave members a quiz to do and this was followed with an egg challenge.

Lisa had a few red Easter eggs left over. Each egg was placed in a plastic cup and Lisa asked those members that wanted to take part in the challenge to place it on top of their heads. The winner would be the person who could walk across the room and back without dropping the egg. There were 2 winners. Everyone thought it was great fun.

Richard then arrived to do Yoga and as usual members always enjoy this. The session then followed with Helen Tierney our musical entertainer who brought 3 musical instruments- the accordion, the harp and also a piano keyboard. Members were really looking forward to seeing Helen as they love the variety of songs she plays especially as she also relates the songs to memorable dates and themes.

On this occasion Helen also brought and introduced Alexis Leighton who is an actress. Alexis read some beautiful poems relating to Spring. The poetry and Helen’s music performance was both brilliant. Some members got up and danced. Valerie and Helen were a great duet singing together and Terry sang with a fantastic Frank Sinatra voice.

Thanks to our Rotary volunteers today – Valerie who is also one of our Trustees and Ian. Also thanks to Mark and Dr Angela our other Trustees. Thank you also to Risom who looks after members with refreshments.

PICTURES TO FOLLOW

Cllr Lisa Rutter founder and chairman of Dementia Club UK which is a registered charity wants to thank Barnet Walking Football Team for fund raising £600.00 during the evening on 21st March 2018 at the Hive home of Barnet FC. The team attended the Dementia Club session at Sha’arei Tsedek yesterday to present the cheque and also mixed with the members, chatting and joining in with the fun activities during the afternoon. The Walking Football Team were a great hit with members and Lisa would like to thank Kevin & Shaun of the WFT for organising this event. Kevin is also one of the carers and he brings his mother in law to the Dementia Club Sessions.

Lisa also wants to thank Tony Kleanthous chairman of Barnet FC who donated for auction a corporate hospitality package for 4 people at a home game of their choice.

For more details see Shaun’s facebook page https://www.facebook.com/shaun.ashley.14/posts/1841552862523213.

Report by session leader Justine:

“The monthly Dementia Club UK meeting was held on the 9th April at Sha’arei Tsedek Synagogue in Whetstone.

A journalist – Kate from ‘BBC5 Live Investigates’ attended today to interview members. Kate is investigating how people with dementia are treated in hospitals and their experiences. Kate managed to interview 3 of our members. The programme will be heard on Sunday 22nd April at 11.00am. It is a one hour programme.

At the start of the session, the guests were served tea, coffee & lovely biscuits and were happy chatting to each other. Kevin, one of our carers who brings his mother in law to Dementia Club, had arranged a fundraising evening in aid of Dementia Club UK on 21st March at The Hive in Edgware. Kevin is part of the Barnet over 50’s Walking Football Team and we were honoured to have them visit us to present Dementia Club UK with a cheque for £600!!!

Shaun, Peter, Mike, Dave, Steve, Barry and Kevin all stayed for the session and joined in with all our activities and were great sports! Everyone loved them! After the presentation, a lady called Jane Rosenberg with her husband Harold (on music) entertained us with some lovely operatic singing which the guests enjoyed and appreciated.

 This was followed by Deborah Griffiths (who came with her 3 young children) who did some Egyptian belly dancing for us! Deborah even showed our guests some of her moves! In between all of this, the guests were even given a quiz to do! Approximately 25 guests and carers, plus quite a few visitors attended the session with the assistance of 5 helpers from the synagogue! Great fun was had by all!.”

Today was a very happy session. Members enjoyed Lisa’s quiz to start and also enjoyed colouring some pictures.

Session then followed with some poetry reading and lots of singing and also some dancing. We want to congratulate Jackie and Joseph who celebrated their 48th wedding Anniversary today.

Lisa then turned on the Tovertafel and members were really looking forward to playing.

Whilst some members played on the magic table, Lisa also distributed other games around the room for everyone to enjoy. Everyone left very happy.

Members were pleased to see Karish and Eva the 2 student volunteers today, my thanks to them for helping with the session. Mark one of the Trustees also helped with setting up the tables and chairs and a big thanks to Melvyn who is one of our regular volunteers.

Today was a busy session. Lisa brought in some red eggs which she had cooked the night before. This is a Greek tradition with the red eggs and Lisa explained that they could hit the eggs amongst themselves until there is one winter egg or they could take their eggs home and decorate the eggs with the picture transfers which Lisa provided to everyone. Most preferred the latter option.

The session then followed with Kevin doing his Family Fortunes game with members which is always great fun.

At this point 2 students arrived. Karish from QE Boys who wants to be a doctor and Eva from Woodhouse College who wants to volunteer. They will be attending to volunteer during the holidays.

 Lisa then cleared one of the tables to prepare and turn on the Tovertafel. This was the first session after the recent launch. Chairs were put around the table and members sat and enjoyed the games. There was so much fun, members did not want to get away. The Tovertafel will be used every week.

Thank you to Mark one of the Trustees who helped set up the tables and chairs. Thank you to Kevin for doing the quiz, Dr. Angela one of the Trustees for helping in the session and Melvyn one of our volunteers who came later.

Today was a small group of members but still very enjoyable session. Lisa started with a quiz and then Richard arrived to do chair yoga which members and volunteers all joined in.

We then had James Le Bec to entertain us with his music and as usual James always manages to get people up dancing.

It was great to see Dr Rebecca who was busy taking blood pressures for some of the members. Also a pleasure to see Julian the Church Minister.

Thank you to our Rotary volunteers John, Malcolm and Victor. Thank you also to Andrew the Church Warden and the volunteer ladies who helped with the teas- Dorothy and Marjorie.

We had a good number of people at this session today.

Lisa started with a quiz about confectionery. This brought many memories of the different types of chocolates and sweets.

Members then sang to wish Pamela and John Happy Anniversary. Pamela brought in some lovely chocolates to share.

The session then continued with Tai Chi with Egon which everyone always enjoys and finds relaxing. Lisa then finished the session with some singing and dancing to the favourite songs.

Thank you to Mark one of the Trustees who was with me today to help with the session.

Dementia Club UK has donated to the Finchley Memorial Hospital a very special piece of equipment called ‘Tovertafel’ and this was celebrated in a launch event at the hospital on Saturday 24th March.

The Finchley Memorial Hospital is the first hospital in London to have this equipment. Tovertafel is a Dutch product and in English means ‘Magic Table’. It is a type of projector which is installed in the ceiling and games are projected onto a table which people can interact with their hands. The games are light simulations of familiar activities such as gardening, fishing and popping balloons to trigger a sense of reminiscence among players, encouraging both individual and group play. The equipment not only helps those people who have medium to more progressed dementia but is also helpful to adults and children with learning difficulties and also autism. It was great to see how people with dementia were stimulated and motivated to play. It brought many smiles and laughter and also some competitiveness.

The carers were also overjoyed to see their loved ones so happy and involved. The Tovertafel is great family interaction.

The launch was very successful with many people attending. We had members from Dementia Club UK, children from Brunswick Park School with their Headteacher Andy Griffiths and some of our special guests were Rotarians from various Rotary Clubs including David Palmer Rotary District London Governor 2014/2015, Dr Jonathan Lubin Barnet CCG GP Representative, Richard Healy Chief Executive from Barnet Community Transport and David Morris from Alzheimer’s society.

Mehdi Bedioui – sole distributor of Torvetafel UK gave a talk about the product and a demonstration. Everyone was so excited to try out the various games. Adults suffering with Dementia with their families were gathered around the table eager to play. There was great interaction and lots of excitement.

One of the carer’s – Mrs Marina Timotheou said;

“It was so nice to see my husband join in the games and competing with the other players and children. I am so grateful to Lisa who always gives us something to look forward to. It makes my life so much easier to have somewhere to go.”

Cllr. Lisa Rutter, the Councillor for Brunswick Park Ward and Founder and Chairman of Dementia Club UK said:

“I am delighted on behalf of all the Trustees of Dementia Club UK to be able to donate this fantastic piece of equipment to the hospital as I feel that this will benefit the most people in the local community. My mother has progressed Alzheimer’s disease and I know the difficulties and challenges carers and families are faced with daily. The feedback received from members attending Dementia Club UK is that I have given them a lifeline. We now have 7 dementia clubs in the Borough of Barnet for people to attend. Providing this extra piece of equipment to the hospital would be an added bonus to giving more pleasure. Whilst there is no cure for dementia, Dementia Club UK will continue to help as many people as possible living with dementia and their carers and families to have a better quality of life and above all to give them hope.”