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Thursday 12th September was a day to celebrate.

Lindy our session leader for Music for the Mind has ran 50 of the last sessions (out of 50!).

Thanks for all your hard work Lindy!

It was also a special occasion for Pat, who celebrated her 90th birthday (pictured with her daughter)

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On Wednesday 17th July our treasurer Mike Knight attended a Grants Presentation Evening for Keynsham Town Council, where he was presented with a cheque for £500 for our group. This will help us to continue our Music for the Mind sessions and the other work we do to make Keynsham and Saltford more dementia friendly. The photograph shows Mike receiving the cheque from Dave Biddleston, the Chair of the Grants Committee. The council has been a great support to the group since it was founded in 2016.

We had our most successful session on Thursday July 11th when we had about 80 people in St Dunstan’s Church Hall. We normally have between 40 and 50 people present that includes people living with dementia, plus their carers and our volunteers. This was a special event as we invited a class from St John’s Junior School to come along and sing to us. They did a concert for us last Christmas that went down very well with everyone. The children were encouraged to talk to our guests and everyone seemed to enjoy the experience.

A donation of £400 has also been received in memory of John Humphreys who sadly passed away recently.

The Keynsham & Saltford Dementia Action Alliance recently celebrated the second anniversary of its ‘Music for the Mind’ sessions.

This service started out as one Thursday morning per month, it’s popularity meant that very soon after the launch the DAA had increased its offer. Now on the second and fourth Thursday of the month (1030 until 1215) around 15 people living with dementia attend, together with their carers. It is a wonderful atmosphere and is obviously enjoyed because most people come to every session.

Thanks for your continued help with everything.

The national Dementia Action Week of May 20th – 26th proved to be a very financially beneficial for the Keynsham & Saltford Dementia Action Alliance (DAA).

On the Monday the chairman of the DAA Alan Hale was invited to attend a meeting of the Saltford Morning WI at Saltford Hall where the president of the WI presented him with a cheque for £1000. This was the culmination of a year of fundraising by the Saltford Morning WI though the majority of the money came from their efforts at the Saltford Christmas Fair 2018 with the sale of crafts.

WI President Merrial Knight told us “The WI was pleased to have the Keynsham and Saltford DAA as their charity and made the decision in my absence and unknown to me, to save me any concern as I am the secretary of the DAA. I was very grateful for their kindness.”

On the Tuesday the DAA held two ‘open door’ dementia friends sessions at St Dunstan’s Church Hall. The evening session was not well attended with only two people taking the opportunity to learn more about dementia and how it affects people living with dementia and how best to help those people.

One was a gentleman who revealed that he was attending the session because his wife had recently been diagnosed as having dementia and he wanted to take advantage of the free session to be better prepared. At the end of the session he rose to leave and thanked both of the presenters and handed an envelope to one of the presenters Vice Chair of the DAA June Brassington and then he left. After he had gone June opened the envelope and found a cheque for £1000.

June told us “I was absolutely surprised and amazed at this gentleman’s outstanding generosity. We are eager to ensure that our ‘Music for the Mind’ sessions are sustainable financially and this will go a long way to helping that to be so.”

The DAA run regular ‘Music for the Mind’ sessions on the second and fourth Thursday of each month between 1030 and 1215 at St Dunstan’s Church Hall. Anyone who has had a diagnosis of dementia is welcome together with their carer. It is all free and at the beginning of the session those there enjoy tea, coffee, cakes and biscuits as well as conversation. Then they move into a circle for the singing.

Chairman Alan Hale told us “These sessions are great fun and much enjoyment is had by those who attend and it is heart warming to watch people come out of themselves and sing along. However to meet the cost we are extremely grateful to the Saltford Morning WI for their efforts to support us and also to our benefactor on the evening of the Dementia Friends Session”

Featured photograph shows Alan Hale receiving the WI cheque from Merrial Knight – President of the Saltford Morning WI. The photo shows from left:
Merrial Knight (President), Alan Hale Chair of K&SDAA, Lynda Coles (Treasurer), Louise Martin (Secretary)