I'll be running the Essex Marathon on Saturday 12th November 2022 to kickstart fundraising for a project that a group of incredible colleagues has been working on, including KMPT volunteer Lorna Pender and Voluntary Services Co-ordinators Helen Pirilla and Stephen Tucker. (The plan had been the London Marathon but covid had other plans...)

We're raising funds for Health, Heart, Hope @KMPT (a working title of the Kent and Medway NHS Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT) Charitable fund). Specifically, we're raising money for a project that will be supported by the fund - the Cognitive Health Intergenerational Reading Project (CHIRP).

CHIRP will link together older people who are living with mild memory problems or dementia, with primary school children who are learning to read. We know that the more that children read, the better they get at reading, the more they enjoy it, and the better they perform in all subejcts at school. Many primary schools already have volunteer projects in which adults visit to listen to children read.

People with mild memory problems and dementia will make fantastic volunteers for these reading projects. We know that both children and older people get a great deal from sharing in meaningful activities like this, and want to make this available across Kent. CHIRP is supported by KMPT Voluntary Services, and within this project, people living with memory problems and dementia are volunteers, not patients. We also hope to partner with other local organisations to broaden the reach of the programme.

The money raised will Provide the necessary support to enable people with memory difficulties to get back and forth to the school and the necessary resources for the school to facilitate the reading time with support staff and books as required.

We hope that this project will empower both children and people living with dementia, thank you for your amazing support!

Our project has been inspired by other projects that bring older and younger people together, including the incredible Downshall Intergenerational Project