In March 2014 My WiSH Charity launched the Forget-Me-Not Dementia Appeal, in partnership with the East Anglian Daily Times and Mercury newspapers.
Originally looking to fundraise £25,000 to pay for the refurbishment of a day room on ward G4 and a dementia memory walk, the appeal to date has raised over £100,000 which has allowed us to create a 100 metre memory walk, make more wards at the hospital dementia-friendly as well as provide invaluable training for staff, volunteers and outside organisations. We have also purchased reminiscence machines, calm carts and provide 'twiddle muffs' to our patients among other things.
Our appeal is still ongoing and we are in the process of planning a memory walk at Newmarket Hospital. We want to continue to push dementia higher up the agenda, break down barriers, tackle stigmas and make people realise they are not alone.
Some facts:
It is estimated that there are more than 3,400 people in West Suffolk living with dementia and 850,000 in the UK
One person every three minutes will develop dementia
18.2 billion is the number of hours caregivers of Alzheimer's gave in 2016
Alzheimer's kills more people than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined
