My dear Mum passed away on 01st October 2018. For nearly 10 years she suffered from vascular dementia. All her life she spent caring about others, and continued doing so until the end. Always smiling, caring, looking after others.. never complaining as dementia took over and engulfed her world. Words cannot describe how it feels to watch someone you know and love be overcome by this horrible disease, forgetting the most simplest of things. When spending time with her, Mum could remember some ballroom dancing competitions in her teens, but could not remember anything she had done on the current day. Drawn into a void of just not remembering things anymore, it was heart warming to see the spark of recognition every time I arrived to see her in her Nursing Home... her face lit up with a loving smile. More often than not the nurses would say look who's here to see you, and Mum would reply "That's My Boy!". Names forgotten and lost in her mind, but she knew she knew me. Sometimes not sure why, but she knew me somehow. Conversations were difficult as she no longer knew the words to say, and made up many new ones to try and talk. Her chats with her Granddaughter Caroline were often hilarious and non-sensical.. but she knew what she was trying to say - we had to guess! The carers at West Oak Nursing Home in Wokingham, like all our medical professionals, were amazing. Mum was their 'Dancing Queen' - the first up to dance and last to sit down. Physically active but lost in her mind and her own little world. Dementia is emotionally hard on everyone... watching the deterioration of a loved ones memories to the point of not knowing who someone is.. a parent not knowing who their son or daughter is.

Last year my United Airlines colleagues and I undertook a 10 mile Memory Walk, and raised an amazing total. This year will are planning another Memory walk on 20th September from Weybridge to Pyrford Lock and back. To help support our team total I also set myself a challenge - ‘August 250’ …. to cycle a target of 250 miles during August. With the weather and legs holding up… I was delighted to have passed that reaching a total of 416 miles.

In such tough times of furloughs, redundancies, and a changing futures, its hard to ask for support for charities. But if you can spare a a pound or two, every one will add up to fight dementia and these horrible diseases like Alzheimer’s that damage the brain. 

Thank you.