Sunday September 8 2024
Swindon & Wiltshire News
Staff at the Trowbrdige-based advanced medical nutrition company Nutricia are fundraising and campaigning throughout May to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s Disease and other types of dementia.
Groups of staff at the company are taking part in various events before and during Dementia Awareness Week which starts on Sunda,y May 18.
Their campaigning in Wiltshire began on Tuesday (May 13) with the handing out of leaflets to shoppers in Trowbridge town centre, to raise awareness of Dementia Friends information sessions happening in the area.
Teams within Nutricia are encouraged to support various charities each year, both by fundraising and donating their time. Some teams have chosen Alzheimer’s Support in Wiltshire.
One fundraiser will be Hannah Davis, who has worked for the company for three years.
She said: “I’m involved because I’ve had family members affected by this condition. My granddad suffered from dementia and I’ve got another loved one who is severely affected by it now.
“We need to be more aware and provide more support and understanding.”
Hannah and her colleagues are organizing a bake sale at the company’s Trowbridge site and will be encouraging all staff to make a donation. The sale is just one of a number of events.
Nutricia nurse Louise Robbins will also be campaigning by giving talks as a Dementia Friends’ champion.
She said: “Nutricia gave me time to take part in a course to educate me around dementia so that I can help with the recruitment of more Dementia Friends.”
Alzheimer’s Support Wiltshire will be working with the Alzheimer’s Society nationally to recruit up to 500 Dementia Friends in the county during the week.
Nutricia is proud to be part of local action and to support the national Public Health England and Alzheimer’s Society campaign to recruit more than one million Dementia Friends across England by 2015
Kate Hall, external affairs manager for Nutricia, said: “We’re proud of our staff and their commitment to this initiative.
“The population dynamics of the UK clearly more and more people will be living with dementia in the future and in just a few short years we will all have friends or family who are touched by this.
“Being an active member of the Dementia Action Alliance and supporting the Carers’ Call to Action, and the Dementia Friends’ initiative we hope to raise the awareness of dementia locally during Dementia Awareness Week.”
Nationally, the Alzheimer’s Society will be encouraging families to ‘open up’ about dementia and to seek help and advice if they are worried about a loved one.
It’s part of an overall drive to remove taboos around dementia and the hope is to eventually recruit up to a million Dementia Friends who will look out for, and support, people in their own communities who have the condition.
