The difference a really unhelpful manager at the gym makes – ‘The reason I go to the gym is to be as independent as possible’

Oh hello it’s Tracey, I just wanted to talk to you about something that happened this week, erm, I’ve been, erm, been taking part in a project to, alongside erm, Alzheimer’s Society to try and make erm, all leisure centres, sports centres and organisation’s to do with sport more dementia friendly (inaudible) and it’s quite fulfilling, erm, I go to gym two, three times a week but for me it’s important to do some, some form of exercise to keep going, it keeps the energy and I always think in my minds eye to keep that dementia at bay a little bit so its important, so I go to my gym which is a sports centre erm, (inaudible) erm, and so er, the Alzheimer’s Society to film me, film me at my house, interview me, film me my journey to the sports centre and then once we’re at the sports centre they’ll take pictures of me or film me doing my bit in the gym, what I do erm, and then have an interview with the manager of the sports centre, erm, to erm, to try and put some of the problems I have there, erm, most of the times if I have a problem I adapt to them, I cope with them, i don’t, I live on my own so any problems that transpire erm, I’m used to problem solving and thinking beyond the box and sometimes people can’t do that and why should they, why should it be up to the person who has dementia to sort out problems and actually maybe a person who’s at the sports centres can sort them out themselves. So one problem is the (inaudible) to get into the sports centre before the (inaudible ) so the first problem is the steps to the first floor, they do have a lift there but problematic, you have to, ask for a key as it’s locked at all times, erm, which I have problems with, huge problems with, not because, just i go, because I like being independent without having to ask and the manager couldn’t understand where, what the problem was. Her regular customers erm, have no problem in asking for a key, so why should I have a problem with that? My problem is isn’t asking for the key or remembering, now I know my memory isn’t too bad but with some people’s memory aren’t so good, (inaudible) at remembering things but for each floor you have to remember to ask for it to unlocked as they leave it locked at all times so each floor, three floors I think, so you have to then go find somebody, remember to do this and then ask them to lock, lock the lift and then in the changing rooms you’ve then got to remember to ask someone to get the key for the lift and I won’t do that, not that it’s a principle thing it’s a real ardous complex thing that can make me have panic attacks and why would I wanna do that when it’s quite stressful and the manager wasn’t very understanding and she actually more or less said I was being quite stubborn, all I had to do was ask for help each time, the reason I keep going to the gym is for me to be as independent as possible, just go in there and do what I need to do and get home again so not that people know that I need help, why can’t, why can’t that happen, anyway, that’s er, that’s the so the Alzheimer’s Society has been and come out to see if they can make it a bit better, more inclusive, erm, it maybe that other customers have no problems but if you have somebody with dementia who has quite a lot of problems like to be pragmatic, maybe I just see things differently than what other people do I don’t know erm, that’s exercise come home and have a shower at home, it’s easier for me,less stressful, no hassle , nobody needs to know I’ve been there really, you know, so it’s nice, anyway, the film will be shown at the sports conference in February which I’m going to see so that should be interesting and and it’s something positive and it’s such a good project for me to get involved in erm, to help other people. Erm hope you have a good day, bye now!