Rutland aiming to become UK's first dementia-friendly county
An awareness event took place at Victoria Hall on Saturday
Rutland is aiming to be the first fully dementia aware county in the UK.
The launch of ‘Rutland’s Great Dementia Conversation’ on Saturday (April 20) at Victoria Hall in Oakham is the first step in a campaign by Rutland MP Alicia Kearns (Con) to drive up dementia awareness, a disease that will eventually affect one in three people.
The event was hosted by well-known broadcaster, John Suchet and his wife, Nula, who met when both their spouses were living in care with dementia. They married in 2016 and are now ambassadors for Alzheimer’s Society.
“We are both very supportive of this campaign to make Rutland the first truly dementia-friendly county in England,” John explained.
“Nula and I both lost our spouses to dementia, which is how we met as they were both in the same care home and we shared our experiences of this awful disease.”
Nula added: “There is still nowhere near enough information, help and support, for the sufferers of dementia, and of course those who are caring for people who have the disease.
“Very often we have been told that the carers of loved ones with dementia suffer just as much, if not more, as they go through the process, and we want to explain that there are support networks out there, but not nearly enough, and we want to raise awareness of dementia so that others can benefit from our experiences.
In front of a packed audience of more than 150 people at Victoria Hall, the Suchet’s explained that dementia awareness is something that in the coming years most of us will need to confront.
The event, a first of its kind anywhere in the country, was organised by Mrs Kearns, who said: “In Rutland we are generally speaking a very healthy county, but I discovered that we have a significantly lower diagnosis count for dementia, and I wanted to do something about that.
“John and Nula Suchet have been so very generous to come here today in a first of its kind ‘conversation’ about Dementia, in which they have shared their joint experiences of the disease that has taken both of their spouses from them.
“I wanted to find a way of breaking down the barriers to talking about dementia which is still something of a taboo subject, just as cancer was 30 or 40 years ago.
“The aim is to make Rutland the first fully dementia-friendly county in the UK.”
It was explained that there may be hundreds of people in Rutland who are living with dementia in one form or another, but without a diagnosis, without support and without the help that they need.