In 2015 my Auntie Lee was diagnosed with dementia and this has got progressively worse with time. This is a mum, wife, nan, sister and auntie who was once full of life, banter and opinion, now its someone who no longer recognises herself .
My auntie Lee and husband Clive have moved to live with their daughter Kelly and her family who care for her daily. 

Kelly has described her experience in living with Dementia and her mum to me...

" So much advise has been given from carers and friends who have experience with Dementia, ideas to help Mum from listening to old music, looking at old pictures, talking about the old times... but unfortunately in this case my mum does not have memory of the past or present. 

Dementia is such an individual disease as it effects every single person differently which makes it all so much harder to put a plan in place to cope with and to help them.  For Mum new faces and help from outsiders is traumatic.  She doesn't understand they have come to support her and so she becomes very confused and angry also paranoid to why they are even there.  When we tried this it was extremely upsetting to me and Dad as the distress on my mums face was too much for us to bare. So as a family we took the decision in stopping help and to deal with her condition ourselves. This was the whole point of moving in together and we will carry on doing this for as long as we possibly can. I think in mums case, support will only come towards the very end when the brain (horrific as it sounds) dies to the point where she no longer knows anyone and only then will she allow help from outsiders. 

Dementia is the most scariest thing I've ever had to witness, watching some one you love disappear in front of your eyes even though they are still here.

In this last year she has lost alot of communication. Her sentences have become muddled, shorter and names of the people she loves are now fading. Faces she once knew so well are familiar but not known to her anymore and time on a clock has disappeared. For mum dates have gone too, she once looked forward to christmas and her granchildrens birthdays but they have become insignificant and just another ordinary day.

I look into Mums eyes and I can see a haze, she looks back but its different the twinkle that was once there is disappearing.  Its heartbreaking to see and I wonder if she knows that as this is happening as she goes she is taking some of my sparkle with her .

I can't explain just how hard Dementia is, you are helpless, the patient is helpless, its a disease which has only one slow result...decline.  No medications can even offer a glimmer of hope, no reversing or stopping it.  Awareness is knowledge and Mum has never accepted that she has dementia!  So we will walk." 


As you have read from Kelly, Dementia is hard and people with Dementia don't know if they need anything or need any help.  But they do!

Everything they know and love is forgotten.  

So we need to remember support raises awareness for them.

So as a family we want to do our bit by helping raise awareness and raise as much money as we can so research and support can continue to those who desperately need it.
As a family we will take part in the memory walk throughout England and Scotland.  Due to covid we can't do this together so we will walk all on the same day, at the same time but within our households in our local areas and walk 7.2 miles to show support to my auntie Lee who is 72 years old.