Biking Builders Cycle 26 miles for Dementia Support
A team from local construction company Ascia Construction successfully completed their sponsored bike ride on 25th February for West Sussex charity – Dementia Support.
The biking builders were very fortunate to have pleasant weather for the ride, although a bit cold. They started out at nine in the morning and trekked from Rowlands Castle through Kingley Vale, Goodwood and down into Boxgrove and Tangmere, finishing at the Dementia Support Hub after midday.
The builders were greeted by their families, the Dementia Support Team and Chairman of Trustees, as they came over the finishing line. Muddy but happy to have achieved their goal, they were also rewarded with an amazing bespoke cake, kindly made by Lynn Ward from Covers Builders Merchants.
Ascia are currently building the new Dementia Support Hub in Tangmere, near Chichester. For many of the building team there is a personal drive to complete the Hub and help with fundraising for the charity as some of their family members have dementia. They have raised £1,652 for their sponsored bike ride.
Tim Brown, Site Manager, spoke about the ride: “It went really well, we were very lucky with the weather and had a great journey down to the Hub. It was great to see everyone turn up to welcome us over the finishing line. We were caked in mud and appreciated the hot drinks and cake!”
The Managing Director, Neil Cole, said: “We can see what a great charity Dementia Support is and how they enhance the wellbeing and quality of life for local people living with dementia. As a local business it is great to be supporting a local charity, especially as we are already so involved with creating this new facility.”
Lesley-Anne Lloyd, Head of Corporate Fundraising, spoke of her appreciation: “Thank you to our amazing biking builders for fundraising for the Dementia Support Hub, it means a great deal to us all and we are extremely grateful. We have a great partnership with Ascia and we appreciate their hard work and dedication to our customers.”
New Hub Build Blog
#DSBuild Week 7; The walls are in – take a look at our curves! 
#DSBuild Week 6 The Hub is really starting to take shape now. Rooms are starting to appear, as are windows and doors where there weren’t windows and doors – its very exciting! Roll on spring 2018 when we open!
#DSBuild Week 5 – some before and after photos of the renovation work in the Hub. You can really start to see it all taking shape. Thank you to the Ascia Team for their great work 
#DSBuild week 4 – we have walls! The new Hub is taking shape. These rooms will be the Memory Assessment Service and Consultation Rooms for information and advice. Looking good 
#DSBuild Day 23 – Some of the walls are going in and they are core drilling the slab as we speak – noisy but essential work! Big thanks to builders Ascia for working around our customers so we can maintain our activities here at the Hub!
#DSBuild Day 18 – Hard hats were adorned for our first informal site review which went very well – as you can see smiles from Ascia’s Site Manager Tim, our Architect Nigel as well as two of #Dementia Support’s Trustees!
#DSBuild We are now in week 2 and walls are being pulled down, moved, rebuilt! The main work going on is a sound proof wall between the occupied and the unoccupied part of the Hub, so we can continue our activities and services without being disturbed by the building work. This will also seperate the units once the new Hub is open.
#DSBuild It has only been a week and there is already a huge difference. Ascia Contruction have done a sterling job clearing the Hub – take a look at these progress photos:
#DSBuild Day 5 – New staff uniforms have arrived!! 
🤣 Looking lovely team! and now we can visit the building works and see it all in progress.
#DSBuild Day 3. It’s starting to look so different already! The Ascia builders have been hard at work.
#DSBuild day 1 – the building team have arrived and were busy prepping the site for work and renovations.
Stay with us over the next few months to see the transformation into our fantastic new #dementia support Hub.
Award winning Singing for the Soul
A new community event is bringing together the residents of Tangmere and people living with dementia. Singing for the Soul is a social singing group for the over 50s and people living with dementia. The group has been organised by Dementia Support volunteer and Tangmere resident – Sue Saunders, who was inspired by a community singing group in Southbourne.
“After seeing how the Southbourne singing group was run and their success, I wanted to emulate something similar in my local village of Tangmere. Everyone who comes gets fully involved and regularly attends each week; it provides company for people who were previously isolated.”
Sue and her fellow volunteers were delighted to win the Observer Community Award for Best Community Event. It was a pleasant surprise as the group is relatively new (started September 2017), but it demonstrates how valuable and well regarded it is in the local community.
The purpose of Singing for the Soul is to provide opportunities to sing and socialise for people over 50 years old, without being a formal choir.
Research into community singing groups (Canterbury Christ Church University, 2012) showed noticeable wellbeing and mental health benefits for those attending.
One attendee spoke of her experience: “I thoroughly enjoyed it; it is a very uplifting, ‘leave a smile on your face’ event.”
Another attendee said: “Gets me out to meet others who enjoy singing in a group; I really enjoy it.”
The group is also dementia friendly which fits with the work of charity – Dementia Support, which is based in Tangmere. People with dementia have a special ability to remember songs, and music becomes a route to communication and engagement. Singing can help lift well-being during and after the session.
They meet every Monday afternoon, 2-4pm in the Tangmere Village Centre. It costs £2.50 per person to attend, with refreshments and homemade cake included.
Volunteers thanked by High Sheriff
Volunteers for local charity Dementia Support were thanked for their hard work during 2017 at a celebration attended by the West Sussex High Sheriff, Lady Emma Barnard.
The volunteers give their skills and time and support the charity’s team to provide dementia wellbeing activities at the Dementia Support Hub in Tangmere. The sessions include: singing, art, socialising, gentle exercising and befriending – all of which provide a therapeutic benefit for people living with dementia, and their families and carers.
Volunteers range from people helping with teas and coffees, co-ordinating the singing group to teaching people how to paint with watercolours. Dementia Support also works with local businesses and organisations to offer volunteering opportunities, such as providing a work placement for Fine Art students at the University of Chichester.
The West Sussex High Sheriff, Lady Emma Barnard, attended the Volunteer Thank You event with her PA and local magistrate Julia Mansergh. They were both very impressed by the vision of the charity, the dementia services that will be provided by the Hub and the dedication of the volunteers.
Lady Emma personally thanked the volunteers for their tireless work for the charity, and for providing much needed support for people living with dementia:
“What an amazing place, and what a wonderful group of people you are! It is very exciting to witness the start of this great enterprise, which will make an enormous difference to so many in West Sussex.”
Together with the volunteers’ help, Dementia Support are already reducing the isolation and loneliness felt by people living with dementia; the charity is also improving access to information and advice and increasing opportunities to improve wellbeing.
Glitz and Glamour at Studio 54 – disco-ing for dementia
Therese McCall has been personally affected by dementia following the diagnosis and consequent death of her mother, and she feels strongly about providing better dementia care.
Together with a group of friends, Therese decided to organise a fundraising evening for local charity – Dementia Support.
Therese heard about this young charity’s vision to provide complete dementia services under one roof and was inspired to support them achieve their goal.
The Dementia Support Hub will provide services such as Memory Assessment, Community Café and Garden, early onset dementia services, information and advice, and therapeutic and social activities for the West Sussex community.
Therese spoke about her plans to fundraise and how the group of friends came up with the idea of replicating the famous 1970s New York nightclub – Studio 54.
“I got together a few of my local friends all who had been affected by dementia in one way or another. Mariella Fleming, who runs Southend Barns, offered to help coordinate the event. Obviously with her experience and organisational skills, we knew we would be able to put on a great occasion. Philippa Gogarty who is the founder and co-owner of Microscooter offered her help as did Caroline Andrews, Patricia Garratt who runs her own successful property business and Sandra McKirgan all who have accountancy backgrounds.
In my past life I have worked as the events organiser for The Prince’s Trust and Comic Relief, so between us all we knew how to put on a good fundraiser.”
“We came up with the idea of doing a nightclub themed event and in our planning came across the iconic notorious seventies New York nightclub – Studio 54. This was the one where Bianca Jagger rode in on a white horse one evening! We didn’t think we could get away with a horse but we managed to source over 30 glitter balls and one huge Glitter ball that was over 1 metre diameter and so heavy it took 4 men to lift it.
Jeremy Pardey, the CEO of Butlins in Bognor Regis was incredibly generous offering us the conference centre at Butlins free of charge for our venue, as well as many other components of the event.
The place was transformed with glitter balls, light-up dance floor, and 1970s memorabilia into a replica Studio 54 Nightclub. Other local businesses helped tremendously. Phil Haddow of Haddow Electrical provided all the electrics and sound system free of charge which allowed us to maximise our profits from our ticket prices in aid of Dementia Support. We managed to source some fantastic auction prizes from both local and more national sources, and ran the auction online and on the night to help raise more funds for the charity.”
“The evening was a huge success; everyone had a brilliant time partying and dancing to the great sounds of Brutus Gold, a famous Manchester act who had literally everyone on the dance floor. Thank you to everyone who was involved and attended. We all had such a fun time organising it, we are already planning to do another one!
Over all the evening made a whopping great £23,000 profit all of which will go directly to helping create the Dementia Support Hub which is fantastic.”
Therese gave an insight into what it was like to be affected by dementia when her mother was diagnosed with the disease:
“I spent the past 8 years watching my mum slowly disintegrate and disappear in front of me as she was overtaken by this terrible disease that is Dementia. Bit by bit her character and personality disappeared. She became totally unable to look after herself. It was terrible to witness. When mum was deteriorating I found there was very little coordinated help out there and I felt adrift and very lonely.
When mum finally passed away after her long battle I really wanted to do something to help others who were in the same situation as me to find some help and support. That’s when I heard about Dementia Support and their plans for the new Hub. And that’s when the idea of putting together a fun fundraising evening, where we could get everyone together, raise awareness and raise money.”
Dementia Support is extremely grateful to Therese and her friends for their fundraising, and is delighted to announce that Therese is now a member of the Fundraising Advisory Board.
Rotary Club of Chichester Priory raise £6,469
Mike Harvey of the Rotary Club of Chichester Priory has come to the end of his presidency and has handed over the presidential chain of office to new president – Lucio Lodi; Mike, and his fellow Rotarians, have presented their nominated charity – Dementia Support, with the proceeds from their fundraising throughout the year.
The Rotarians held a variety of fundraising events throughout the year – a Beaujolais French themed lunch at the Masonic Hall, Chichester, in November, a Quiz Night in March and an Italian Night in May. The Beaujolais Lunch raised £2,084 and the Quiz Night and Italian Night together made £4,385. Mike Harvey, and the new Chichester Priory President, Lucio Lodi, came to the Dementia Support Hub in Tangmere to present the charity with a cheque.
The Quiz Night was so successful, with an impressive 23 teams taking part at the Chichester Park Hotel, that the Rotary Club will run it again in 2018. The Italian Night was fundraising evening with a difference. Guests enjoyed authentic Italian cuisine and a talk from BBC’s antiques expert and Bellman’s auctioneer – Jonathan Pratt, about his journey into a career in the antiques world and plenty of entertaining anecdotes.
The charity was delighted with the overall amount of £6,469 the Rotary Club have raised in the last twelve months. It has also been a great partnership in raising awareness about dementia in the local community. Dementia Support were also pleased to hear that the new president, Lucio, has announced that he will continue to support the charity for another year during his presidency.
Dementia Support Drinks Reception – welcome to new Patron, Derek Bell MBE
On the evening of 23 June 2017, Dementia Support hosted a Drinks Reception at the Charlton Panoramic, overlooking Goodwood Racecourse. This was an opportunity to thank patrons and supporters as well as introduce designs for the new Dementia Support Hub in Tangmere. The charity also introduced their new Patron, multiple Le Mans winning racing driver and a Patron of Dementia Support – Derek Bell MBE. The evening was also hosted by Fundraising Advisory Board Chairman Robert Langmead and charity Trustee Lucinda Langmead; Lord and Lady March were also amongst the attendees.
With a 26% increase in dementia expected within the next five years, the introduction of the new Hub is more important than ever. The charity currently runs pilot sessions for people living with dementia, and their family and carers; the Hub sees 100 people a month but, with the new design, they hope to accommodate around 200 people per day. This cannot be achieved without the help of generous patrons and supporters, who have so far helped to raise half of £1.74 million goal.
The evening saw talks from Vice Chair of Trustees, Becca Randell, Derek Bell MBE, and Head of Major Donor Fundraising, Becky Stotesbury. Becca began by giving thanks to those who attended, especially to the trustees and the dedicated team.
Derek Bell spoke about his links to Dementia Support and why he became a patron of the charity. His younger sister, Stephanie Bell, suffers from dementia and after she was diagnosed, he began to research the disorder taking more interest, becoming a patron of the charity in May 2017.
“We want to bring a better quality of life to people, when people come [to Dementia Support], I think about how we could help.”
When asked what his favourite thing about Dementia Support was, Bell replied, “The principle. To be open 9am-5pm, five or seven days a week, it’s somewhere for people to come.”
Derek is currently the global Bentley Motors brand ambassador, and a Bentley GT, a Bentayga and an Aston Martin were kindly loaned by Harwoods for display outside the Charlton Stand.
Referring to the designs for the new Hub, Bell said, “The building is quite something, I haven’t seen anything like it before.”
Becky Stotesbury spoke about what Dementia Support is currently working on and reminded the supporters and patrons where their donations are being spent.
“Our overall message is to provide an accessible and flexible service, support and advice,” she said, “to support people when they need it most. We want them to come somewhere where they truly want to be.”
“Every donation counts,” she reminded the audience.
The fundraising is making good progress however, Dementia Support need help to get the new Hub fully funded and rely on support and generous donations to reach their goal.
The charity needs to urgently raise £1.74 million to renovate their building in Tangmere and install the dementia services so the Dementia Support Hub can officially open in Spring 2018. The Hub will include essential services for people living with dementia, their friends, family and carers; this will be a lasting legacy for generations to come and inspire people to live well with dementia & know they are supported.
If you would like any further information about the charity, and the fundraising appeal please contact us at info@dementia-support.org.uk or call 01243 888 691.
You can also visit their website: www.dementia-support.co.uk
