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A Trip to Wells in June 2024

In June we arranged a trip out to Wells to visit the Bishop’s Palace. Dial-a-Ride picked 15 of us up from St Dunstan’s Church and 5 others went by car. On arrival the on-site café was the first stop and then we had an escorted tour of the palace and the wonderful gardens. Then it was time for lunch in the restaurant. The food was very good and we were all able to sit together. There was still time for people to have a quick walk around the area near the cathedral before returning home. Those on the minibus had a good old sing-song.

It was a very enjoyable day out, the weather was excellent and the staff at the Bishop’s Palace looked after us really well.

The Keynsham Music Festival in July 2024

The Keynsham Music Festival took place during the first week of July. For the second year running our group was invited to put on a Music for the Mind session on the Friday afternoon in the Big Tent in Keynsham Park. Refreshments were provided and the first hour our friends were entertained with a circus act, a man blowing bubbles and a sing-a-long with a guitarist playing some good old songs from the 60s and 70s. For the second hour, Lindy Platt, our regular leader, got everybody doing some simple exercises followed by more singing accompanied by John Hare. We would like to thank Mike May and his team for inviting us to the festival and helping us to set everything up. It was a very enjoyable afternoon.

The Annual Afternoon Tea Party in July 2024

Our annual afternoon tea party took place on Tuesday 16^th July in St Dunstan’s Church hall. The kitchen was in the very capable hands of Judith Lynn as usual and she was ably assisted by Jayne Leaves and Jenny Woodford. Other volunteers served as waiters with the hot drinks. There was just over 50 people altogether.

To start off we were royally entertained by Lindy Platt accompanied on the organ by Geoff Ditcham. Lindy normally leads the singing during our Music for the Mind but on this occasion she showed us what a lovely singer she is. She sang songs from the good old days of musicals and we all joined in any with a chorus. Geoff also read a piece written by Joyce Grenville as well as a hilarious Pam Ayres poem. Judith then added her own entertainment with a couple of jokes that were met by laughter and groans in equal measure.

Then it was time to eat. There was a scone for everyone served in the Cornish tradition of butter then jam with cream on top. There was also plenty of cake with hot and cold drinks to wash it all down. Everybody seemed to have a good time and left with a full belly and a smile on their face. I’m sure there will be another one next year.

There has been a lot happening over the last couple of months as well as the twice monthly Music for the Mind sessions in St Dunstan’s Church Hall.

In April we received the good news that we had been successful with a grant application that we submitted to Quartet Community Foundation, a Bristol based organisation, for £2,500 to go towards our operating costs. We invited a representative from Quartet to come and see how we would spend the money. Consequently at our session on 23^rd May we were pleased to welcome Angela Emms, a philanthropy manager with Quartet and she brought along John Cullum from the Cullum Family Grassroots Fund who provided some of the funding. They were very impressed with the session and could see the positive effect on those present who were living with dementia. The picture shows Angela and John with Lindy, who leads the singing, along with June, committee lead, Merrial, secretary and Mike, treasurer.

Rachel is one of our regular carers and she brings her mother, Marjorie, to our sessions. She held a 24 hour walking marathon to raise funds for our group and a local cancer charity called We Get It. It was held in Audley Avenue in Bath and the neighbours took it in turns to walk around the Avenue. The Mayor of Bath came along to start off proceedings. Thanks to Rachel for all her hard work and for her donation of £500 which will be used to fund our sessions

The week commencing 13^th May was National Dementia Week. Meryton Place care home arranged a tea party for the Monday afternoon and invited our singer Lindy, to run a Music for the Mind session. It was open to all and quite a few of our regulars attended as can be seen from the photo. The food was excellent and everyone had a good time.

On Saturday 18^th May, Homeavon House residential home had a morning sale with proceeds going to our charity. Naturally tea, biscuits and cake were available. All the proceeds will go to our charity. Many thanks to Gretta and Pam for organising it and for making us so welcome. Thanks to everyone’s generosity approximately £300 was raised. Thanks to everyone involved. We are their charity of the year.

The Chocolate Quarter (TCQ) Dementia Carers Support Group (DCSG) would like you to join them on Friday 21st June, 10.30am. They have secured the CEO of ReCognition Health, the eminent Dr Emer MacSweeney.  

She will be speaking @ TCQ, in or cinema on Friday 21st June from 10.30-11.30, coffee and biscuits will be provided. Dr MacSweeney, is a Consultant Interventional Neuro-Radiologist, she co-founded Re:Cognition Health in 2011 to provide a specialist service for accurate diagnosis and access to the latest treatments for progressive neurodegenerative & neurodevelopment conditions and traumatic brain injury. Today, Re:Cognition Health has 10 Centres in the UK & USA, one being in Bristol, where individuals can benefit from the opportunity to enter global clinical trials for emerging medication. Dr MacSweeney’s recently featured on Panorama “Alzheimers Turning Point” she will be discussing some of ReCognition Health’s successful clinical trials and the exciting research that is now emerging.

Please could you RSVP to trishd1@me.com to secure a place.

The Keynsham Good Afternoon Choir arranged an evening charity concert on Tuesday 26^th March in St John’s Church in Keynsham. The choir have chosen our Keynsham & Saltford Dementia Action Alliance to be their Charity of the Year for 2024. A raffle was held during the course of the evening and it was agreed that the proceeds would be donated to our charity.

The programme for the evening included contributions from The Keynsham Good Afternoon Choir, the Wellsway School Choir, the Wellsway 6^th form Chamber Choir and the Grassy Knoll Ukelele Choir. The concert was well attended and all the groups performed well and it made for a very thoroughly enjoyable evening for everyone.

At the end of the evening we had collected £374.80 for our charity. Our thanks go to everyone who helped out on the evening and to all those who donated items for the raffle.

We are already three months into 2024 and it’s been a busy start to 2024 for the group. There have been four Music for the Mind sessions so far and they have all been well attended despite the winter weather. With February having 5 Thursdays we put on a boccia session on the 29^th. Boccia is similar to bowls but it’s an indoor game played while sitting down and is suitable for all ages and abilities. The session went very well with over 30 people taking part. Boccia seems to be getting more and more popular and the next session will take place on Thursday 30^th May.

Please note that in March there will only be one Music for the Mind session on Thursday 28^th March as St Dunstan’s Church Hall was not available on the 14^th March. 

The Keynsham Good Afternoon Choir have nominated our group to be their Charity of the Year 2024. They aim to run concerts during the year and any money raised will be donated to out charity. They are holding a concert on Thursday 21^st March in St John’s Church starting at 7pm. A young choir from Wellsway School will also be singing plus a local ukulele band. Tickets can be obtained from gac.ticketlight.co.uk or call 0844 888999. 

Our group has also benefited recently from two local organisations. We applied for a community grant from Keynsham Town Council and our application was successful and we received £975 from them to help us continue with our work. We also received a donation from our local Waitrose store. Many thanks from our committee and all our volunteers to both the Town Council and Waitrose for their support.