The value of getting outdoors as part of a walking group

it’s Stephen Tamblin with Stephen’s dementia diary. I was a founder member of our walking group. We meet up once a week – Wednesday morning about 10.30-12.30. I think there’s about 15 in the group and most of them have one form of dementia, Alzheimers, yeah. We go around the local clay trails around the St Austell area in Cornwall, and on bad days we go indoors – wet, we can go indoors. When we’re outdoors it helps a lot with our moods. Before I started going on the walks my mood was very low all the time. Now we’ve been going on the walks for nearly 4 years through the Sensory Trust and we’ve found our own group. We had 3 volunteers to look after us which is really good and it does make you feel a whole lot better. I think it makes everybody else feel a whole lot better just to go out and spend time with each other and have a laugh and a joke and just generally hang out with the group and go in the local clay trails in the local areas. Yeah it’s really good. I enjoy it and I’m sure everyone else does. it’s so nice to get out and getting about. I don’t know whether other parts of the country are doing the same thing. I guess some of them are. Whoever can get out and make a group up, go and do it – it really does make you feel better physically and mentally I guess.

That’s it for now.

Bye