Blog

Today Diny one of our carers brought a lot of jewellery she has been making over a number of years. She sold a number of pieces to the members and donated the proceeds to our charity – Dementia Club UK. I am very grateful to Diny and thank her very much. Diny said it takes her about 2 evenings to make a piece, she enjoys making them and she believes that the secret of living longer is to keep your mind active by having a hobby you enjoy. Diny will be 90 years young on the 30th of this month. Her mother lived to 102. We had 4 volunteers from Barnet Council Staff who were rushed off their feet as we were very busy today. My thanks to them as I don’t think I could have managed today without their help. Tija our new dance exercise instructor gave us some Spanish dance movements. She explained the 2 ways to clap, the graceful wrist and finger movements and tapping feet.

Lorna Parkinson Community Support Officer “Action on Hearing Loss” came to talk to us about our hearing. She said don’t ignore hearing problems, go and speak to your GP first, they will refer you to a specialist.

She also offered everyone a free hearing test in a private area which most of the members took advantage of. She had batteries and spare tubes and lots of good advice.

This was a very busy session today and fortunately I had a new volunteer I met at the recent Dementia Awareness day at Brent Cross who came and helped and I was very grateful.

I am very pleased to report that the Dementia Awareness Day on the 19th May at Brent Cross was a real success. All of our volunteers attended to help with the day. A lot of people approached us to ask questions, to talk about problems they were experiencing and wanted advice and information. People are now seeing more items in the media about dementia such as the recent Horizon documentary about dementia and Angela Rippon on BBC.

Matthew Offord MP officially launched Dementia Club UK ‘DC UK’ by cutting the ribbon and was happy to talk to the volunteers and meet some of the dementia sufferers. We also had Nigel Wray Chairman of Saracens. We are very proud to be associated with such a successful rugby club who cares and does so much for the community.

Cllr David Longstaff who by the time you read this will be the new Mayor of Barnet, he has very generously chosen Dementia Club UK as one of his charities he will be supporting during his Mayoral year. We will be helping him to achieve this and help him raise money

Following the ribbon cutting, a flash mob congregated who were actually the Zemel Choir. A lot of people gathered to hear the Choir which was conducted by the musical Director Dr Benjamin Wolf. The choir sang beautifully and the acoustics were amazing in the centre point at Brent Cross.

Dementia Club UK is a transition from Saracens Dementia Club which is still sponsored by Saracens. Dementia Club UK is a charity formed in January 2016 and is currently running 4 dementia cafes and will soon be launching the 5th dementia café at Hendon Town Hall on Thursday 28th July.

The pictures shows some of our volunteers, our Dementia Club UK doctor – Dr Angela Parker and also Harley the ‘DC UK’ therapy dog. Harley has been great at the dementia cafés. Dementia sufferers find him very soothing. He is loved by all the members and is happy to receive lots of attention.

Although Dementia is unfortunately growing and there is still no cure, Dementia Club UK will continue to help as many dementia sufferers and their carers and families to continue and enjoy life as much as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ionian Clarinet Choir gave a fabulous concert in aid of Dementia Club UK on Saturday 7th May at St Andrew’s Church in Southgate. Many of our Dementia Club UK members were in the audience and I could see that everyone was immersed and enjoying the music. Thank you to the ICC and for everybody who contributed to the charity and to Father Ed and his church who hosted the evening.

Today we had a challenging quiz after a long chat where everyone was getting to know each other better. Exercises followed then lots of games and social activities. Everybody enjoyed the afternoon.

Introduced for the first time Bingo which everyone really enjoyed, then some poetry reading, exercises which led to the dancing. Finally various activities such as ‘Putting Golf’ and even more dancing by everyone.

At the Dementia Club today at Finchley Memorial I invited Martin Russell the Deputy Lieutenant of Barnet who presented a slide show to all the members explaining his role as the Queens representative and showing different events he attended. He then cut the cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday to the Queen followed by 3 cheers.

 

The session then followed with a sing along by Jonathan Fenton and his wife Carole accompanied by Caroline the pianist. Everyone enjoyed singing  various familiar songs. This was a great birthday celebration. Our Best Wishes to HM The Queen for her 90th birthday.

Arts Depot kindly hosted a lunch for 22 members of Dementia Club UK. We had a light lunch and we were shown around an exhibition which we all found interesting. It was also Marina’s birthday so we all celebrated as she brought 2 large chocolate cakes. Our thanks go to our hosts Estelle, Tim and Antonia for looking after us.

Today we had Lucy Whitman who came to present her book “People with Dementia Speak Out”. Lucy came with Andy Bellisario and her mum Dizi Conti, step dad Derek Norman and Lucy’s cousin Jo Farley. Also attended was Jane Moore. Jane read a story about the life of her mother, Lorna, which was very moving and in some parts funny. Lucy Whitman summarized to say that people with dementia is not the end, you can still have quality of life. This prompted one of the members of the group who got up to speak and say that she did not feel that dementia has reduced her quality of life.

The book reading session was followed by dancer Tija Hubej who studied Dance and Music at Ljubljana in Slovenia, She has been dancing since the age of 3 years old. Members were able to learn various dance steps from Italy, Hungary and Spain and also famous ballet dances. This inspired all the members to continue dancing to further Greek Music led by one of the members who knew the Zorba dance.