I was proud to attend the launch of the Dementia Friendly High Street in Andover last week. Last year I became an Ambassador for Dementia Friendly Hampshire and one of my ambitions at the time was to help promote exactly this in our town. A really packed room at the White Hart saw The Mayor of Test Valley – Cllr Jan Lovell – present businesses with their window stickers to show they are now “dementia aware” and can provide a caring and understanding service to those will dementia. Amongst those attending were Andover Leisure Centre and the library, Costa Coffee, Boots, Specsavers, The Lights, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Lulu’s, Breakers, C&M DIY Centre and others, all of whose staff have now been through an awareness session.
Dementia Friendly Hampshire is a fantastic initiative being spearheaded by Debra Ramchurn, Debbie Morshead and the rest of the team at Andover Mind.
My other stated ambition on becoming an Ambassador was to see the establishment of an International Dementia Research Institute in the UK, and pleasingly after a campaign led by me from City Hall and by UCL, last Saturday the Prime Minister announced the creation of just such an institute within the next five years alongside other exciting initiatives to tackle this dreadful disease. You can find the details here