We invited students from The Cathedral Primary School in Chelmsford to share their treasured memories for a competition launched during Alzheimer’s Society Dementia Action Week in May. Children were given a brief introduction to dementia and asked to present their favourite memories. The younger pupils were encouraged to draw pictures depicting their precious memories whilst the older children were tasked to do this in writing.
The school council said “At the Cathedral Primary school, we chose to run a competition in partnership with Essex Dementia Care because it is a cause we care about and wanted to raise more awareness. We found out that some of our school community has first-hand experience of dementia as some family members suffer with the illness.
We felt writing and drawing about memories was important as some people find it difficult to recall long term memories and we thought it would be beneficial to share our memories with others.
We recognised the Alzheimer’s Society Dementia Action Week in May and completed some activities in class about how the brain works and why it is such an important part of our bodies. The school council shared the competition with their classes and encouraged people to enter.
We had a good response to the competition and some great memories of holidays, favourite presents, experiences with friends and family and sporting achievements. We hope that some of these can be shared with people who benefit from the charity.
Well done to our winners!”
Kelly Bleasdale,, our Senior Manager said “As well as providing activity based care for our clients and support for their loved ones, it is very much part of our strategy to build local awareness of dementia whenever possible.
Our theme headline was ‘They say elephants never forget, sadly sometimes people do’ and we hope that learning about these changes at an early age could help children to have a better understanding of the challenges faced by those living with dementia.
I would like to thank the school council and all the children that participated.”