George’s thoughts on Wendy’s book.

Hi It’s George from not Shropshire,
If you know someone who has dementia, or if you have dementia or think you might have dementia, please read Wendy’s book, ‘Somebody I used to know’. I’m not doing this as an advert, I’m not paid, but Wendy is a wonderful woman, and in fact Wendy and I regard ourselves as non-blood brother and sister.

What she says about the work involved, the hard work involved sometimes, in actually working for raising awareness, promoting Dementia Friends and so on; I share it entirely, it makes life worth living still, but it’s a new life. And Wendy encapsulates that and describes it brilliantly in her rather poetic way. She has wonderful phrases, wonderful metaphors here and there. I mean she describes speaking at events and meetings as her Sudoku. But she also acknowledges she gets fed up talking about and thinking about dementia at times, and I do too, in actual fact we all do. We need breaks when we think “okay, blank it out”. She has a wonderfully positive attitude to her dementia; she’s phenomenal. I once witnessed her actually write a fairly long poem that had to include fifty words that people in a meeting had written down. And she did it in about 15 minutes over lunch. No-one knew she was doing it and then she read it out and it is absolutely stunning and I know that it’s on the Dementia Diaries. When she talks about using Twitter and to begin with being a bit frightened of it and not thinking it’s for her, I too have come to Twitter 6 or 7 years ago and I find that it is a fantastic way of always knowing you’re in touch with people, always being able to find out stuff that’s going on and just feeling less alone. It’s really, really to be recommended. So, please, do go out and get her book, it’s just so refreshing and at the same time informative #(inaudible) antidote to the usual picture we see of the old, the frail and the people at the end of their journey. Most of us, when we actually get involved (inaudible) influencing, think about it professionals, for anybody who will listen. And that’s a new life and a very worthwhile life and it makes you know you’re making a difference. So, that’s it for now, speak to you again soon, Bye