13TH JANUARY: In accordance with the wishes of Dawn herself, this fundraising campaign is now ending tomorrow the 14th of January.

So I can only finish by saying a huge thank you to all of YOU who have contributed to make it a success. The target set on here of £2000 may not appear to have been reached but with other external donations it has indeed hit a gross total of £2202 from 111 generous people. You are all STARS.

a Vulcan Dawn Alone - this is a short video I made by way of tribute to Dawn's Dad and to explain Dawn's situation. Just 6 minutes.

Dawn Sunrise is my Twitter friend.

Dawn's Dad is PETER THOMAS, a 94yr old veteran RAF pilot, decorated by the Queen, who flew the famous Vulcan bombers over 400 times in defence of this country. He was the first RAF pilot of Vulcan XH558. That was "his" plane!

He put his life on the line to defend this country but is now a forgotten hero.

Peter now lives in a care home along with his wife Pearl, aged 89, as they both have dementia. They will never know that Dawn now has to sell the family home to pay the £9000pm care home fees because of the injustice of the failed social care system in this country.

This was featured in a recent Daily Express article:

Dawn is now going through and removing all of their possessions including treasured items of memorabilia related to her Dad's RAF service, her Mum's wedding photos album, and candles that were always out for family gatherings at Christmas time. I have referred to as being a living grief - as Dawn has to do things which ordinarily we only encounter when our parents have both died, when the whole family would mourn their loss and deal with the painful process of closing accounts and clearing the home ahead of it's sale.

This is Dawn's parents on the day her father was decorated by the Queen.

She has had no appreciable offers of help from any organisations she has approached. It seems there is not a single organisation that offers help specifically for families in the position that Dawn now finds herself. Can you imagine how incredibly difficult it is for Dawn to visit her parents and be unable to tell them what she is having to do or to ask her Dad about RAF items she comes across? She is crumbling emotionally, struggling to cope and needs support. Please see the updates below.

A charity for all of the Dawn's out there is needed - I would call it the DAWN FORCE. Dementia Assistance We Need! A possible further project to do!

Dawn is still currently unable to see her parents due to the COVID-19 lockdown and has begun to fear that she may never see them again!

The home is now on the market but if it cannot be sold soon enough then the council are pushing an expensive loan to cover the care home fees.The council are ruthlessly unsympathetic.

SO PLEASE can I ask you to chip in with a monetary sacrifice to honour her Dad who was prepared to sacrifice his LIFE for this country and help Dawn just a little? - we cannot safeguard all of the legacy her Dad believes will remain intact for his children but we can do something for Dawn.

Even if we can just raise something to help offset Dawn's travel costs - 2 hours to go and see them or to visit their house - and expenses related to clearing out and selling the family home it would be appreciated. She has high praise for the care home staff looking after her parents - let's help her reward them once this virus pandemic is over and she can see them again!!

I have suggested she write a book about her life as a child growing up on airfields watching her Dad take off in his Vulcan and offered her the title "From baby cries to Vulcan howls" in recognition of the famous noise a Vulcan made in the sky. It will be a great read but will take some research, funding and time but you can appreciate she is somewhat busy :(

As an alternative payment method if you have a PayPal account then here is a link direct to me, again for any amount you care to donate. It only takes a minute or so: https://paypal.me/ramapollo?locale.x=en_GB

As dementia is a mental illness it does not get funding under the NHS as it is currently considered to be a social care issue falling under the cash-strapped councils who charge inflated fees for such care home residents in England! Too many that do the right thing, work hard and save to buy their own home, end up having to pay for their care, whilst those who rent or squander their money, or play off the benefits system, will get free care should they need it. How is that fair?! IT IS A COMPLETE INJUSTICE!

Please help this campaign and also consider supporting the Alzheimers Society efforts to raise awareness about social care system changes required in this country: https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-involved/our-campaigns

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

#fixdementiacare