Posted: December 19, 2018
The mother and daughter duo, who both work at the College, came up with the plan after becoming emotionally connected to the cause after a close family member of theirs was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
Julie and Emma Buttrick decided to run the campaign on campus to help raise the profile of Dementia and help others understand the illness and the impact it has on both the individual and their loved ones.
Dementia is a word to describe a variety of symptoms including memory loss, confusion, mood changes and difficulty with daily tasks. According to Alzheimer’s UK, 850,000 people are estimated to be living with dementia in the UK.
All staff and students were encouraged to wear elf costumes, participate in a quiz, go to an Elf spinning Class at Kingsway Fitness Suite, bake sale, have a go at special dementia stimulation tasks and watch the film ‘Still Alice’. Leaflets and information slides were also circulated for others to learn from.
Emma Buttrick (Health and Social Care Programme Tutor) said, “I was really pleased with how many staff and students contributed to the event and got involved. We had 20 teams participate in the quiz and we also raised £200.00. Although it wasn’t about raising money, we are really pleased that this money will benefit the local community.”
Emma and her Mum Julie, also organised a memory walk last year which was a great success and are planning another in the new year.