Thank you for taking the time to look at my Just Giving Page. My Dear Dad, Bill, died on January 8^th 2021 after living with dementia for 12 years.

There is much more information on their website than I can give you in this little box but below, in a tiny nutshell, is why I am fundraising for The Contented Dementia Trust.

Worried that “something was not quite right” with his memory, my Dad took himself off to a specialist and it was confirmed that he was in the early stages of Vascular Dementia. The initial pace was slowed down through medication and we all carried on as best we knew
how, but as the years went by, the strain was beginning to show.

I had heard talk that there was a ground-breaking organisation called The Contented Dementia Trust whose HQ was very local to us which
focused on empowering both those suffering with dementia and their carers by using their very own SPECAL method (­please read about this on their website http://www.contenteddementiatrust.org/what-is-the-specal-method/)

The Trusts view is that “dementia is a disability which can be managed with remarkable success, rather than an ultimately
hopeless medical condition.” This was the positive thinking that we so
very much appreciated hearing in what did indeed feel like a hopeless downwards spiral.

There is no doubt that dementia is a pretty terrifying and horrific illness but with once armed with a deeper understanding
of how memory works, what happens as we age and if dementia sets in, there are most definitely many ways of living alongside this illness in a hugely positive way. Be you a family member, carer or friend of someone with the illness, it’s very important to all be on the same page.

My little caring team and I fully submerged ourselves in their introductory course, read their widely available fantastic
book ‘Contented Dementia’ and had my father attend their Friday Group so that we could get as many tips as possible to keep Dad’s feelings of wellbeing as consistently on “green” as opposed to “red”.

 We managed his dementia, in his own home, for 6
years. When the time came, The Trust helped me handle the painful (for me) process of moving Dad from our home to a nursing home in the most calm, calculated and loving way possible. I couldn’t have asked for better guidance and support. Their guidance
also taught me important life-long lessons for caring for others in some kind of mental distress, not just my father.

As a response to our lives all becoming somewhat smaller from this pandemic, there is the opportunity to spread the
teachings of The Contented Dementia Trust to a significantly wider audience by making their teaching resources fully available online with ‘Virtual Burford’ as well as continuing to provide as much face-to-face work as the pandemic permits.
 

Making this content available online obviously entails
costs. Their website also needs an overhaul to manage the hugely increased amount of traffic that they are seeing as so many more people these days are
caring for someone with dementia during these unprecedented times.

Please give what you feel you can. As the saying goes,
“every little helps”, especially with Gift Aid! And, if you ever hear of anyone in any stage of caring, or simply, knowing someone with dementia, please point them in the direction of The Contented Dementia Trust. It changes lives.

*now that I have had the most amazing donation from one of my parents friends for £5000, I'm aiming to raise £8000; £1000 for every decade of my Dad's life!*

Thank you so much.

Alice

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