Audley Chandler was a regular visitor to Music for the Mind. She used to come along with her daughter, Lynne Matthews, and they both greatly enjoyed the sessions. Audrey was always cheerful and was loved by all our volunteers. Sadly she passed away recently and the family held a collection at her funeral and collected a total of £560. Lynne decided to donate the money to our group because of the kindness and fun both Audrey and Lynne got from our sessions. Lynne came along with her husband to our meeting on 13th March to present us with the money. A wonderful way to acknowledge the life of a lovely lady. She will be missed by everyone in our group.
The photograph shows June, our Chair, with Lindy, who leads our singing, with Lynne and her husband.
Our last Music for the Mind session of 2024 on 12th December had to be switched to Saltford Hall as the roof of St Dunstan’s Church Hall had been damaged in a storm. The first meeting of 2025 on 9th January had to be cancelled, when another problem was found at St Dunstan’s that needed urgent repair. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to arrange an alternative venue. We were advised that repairs were unlikely to be fixed before early February. We were determined to run a session on 23rd January and Saltford Hall was again free but only on Thursday afternoon. As a result numbers attending were slightly down but we still had a good old sing song.
The following Thursday, the 30th, was the fifth of the month so we decided to go ahead with a boccia session as usual. Saltford Hall was again the venue and there were over 30 people in attendance. There was a wonderful atmosphere in the room. Everybody got involved, cheering good shots and generally being very supportive to everyone. The players are improving a lot and we had a grand final between two couples, Hazel and Morris and Dennis and Vera. Hazel and Morris eventually won and the attached pictures shows them in action.
In early February we got the all clear from St Dunstan’s and we could return to the church hall on 13th February. This was great news and we immediately got in touch with all our volunteers and friends. We had a wonderful session with our biggest ever attendance. Everybody was so glad to be back home. It went very well, the singing was better than ever. A couple of guests attended the meeting and they both said how much they had enjoyed it.
Thanks to Lindy and June for leading the singing, to Judith and her team in the kitchen and to all our volunteers for the hard work they put in at every meeting. Great team work overall. Thanks to Tim Blowers, our Chair of Trustees, who does a lot of work in the background. Good luck Tim in the Bath half marathon on Sunday 16th March. Tim is being sponsored and all the proceeds are going to our group, you can donate here – https://bathhalf2025.enthuse.com/pf/tim-blowers1
Everybody had been looking forward to our only December Music for the Mind session on 12th December which was billed to be a Christmas special. Everything was going smoothly until the Monday before the event when we got a phone call to say that St Dunstan’s Church Hall was unavailable as the roof of the hall had been damaged over the weekend by Storm Darragh. There was a lot of activity to see if we could find an alternative at such short notice with sufficient car parking for 50+ people. Fortunately Saltford Hall was available so it was all systems go. The volunteers did a fantastic job to get the hall prepared and Judith and her kitchen team did really well to get all the refreshments , cake and biscuits ready in strange surroundings. Great team work by everyone, not forgetting Lindy who led the proceedings expertly as usual.
We also used the occasion to highlight the talent that we have in our group. This included Pete who sang an Elvis number, Judith with some of her jokes, Rick who gave us a clarinet solo, Andy who sang a rock number, Mike Greenside who did a bit of jive dancing to Rock around the Clock and finally the volunteers who entertained everybody with a 10 minute version of Cinderella which nearly brought the house down. Tim, our Chair of Trustees was the narrator and did a great job. We look forward to more fun and frolics next year.
Our thanks go to the Hamberley Care Home in Keynsham which has been raising money over the last few months. We received £475 from Meryton with money raised by staff and residents from events including summer fairs and open days.
On Thursday 21st November we arranged a trip to Cadbury’s Garden Centre to enjoy some Christmas spirit and to take the opportunity to buy some presents. This is the third year that we have arranged the trip and again it proved to be very successful. There were 26 present including those living with dementia along with their carers plus some volunteers. 16 went via Dial-a-Ride and the rest by car.
We bought everyone a hot drink and a piece of cake when we arrived at 11.00. Everyone had a wander round before returning to the restaurant for lunch. Following another walk around to see the singing reindeer we all made our way home. As usual Cadbury’s really looked after us well and made sure that everything went smoothly. I’m sure it will be the same again next year.
Making Keynsham and Saltford dementia friendly 