A Christmas Celebration

A Dementia Friendly Christmas Celebration was held on Saturday 22 December 2018 in St Mary’s Church, Wendover (working towards being a Dementia Friendly Church) in association with Churches Together in Wendover. Organised by Sian Chattle (Chair) and Sylvia Oram of Wendover Dementia Action Alliance, the celebration was conducted by Rev Sally Moring and Rev Remco van den Heuvel.

Sir Jackie Stewart, Patron of Wendover Dementia Action Alliance, was accompanied by his wife Lady Helen, who is living with dementia. Sir Jackie welcomed everyone present and asked us not to be embarrassed by dementia, rather to speak openly in order to raise awareness of the condition, to see and hear the words of encouragement by Sir Jackie click here.

The celebration followed a theme of memories, Christmas songs, carols, poems and the Christmas story. We were joined by children from Wendover C of E Junior School, (the school is one of the first in the country where all the children are trained Dementia Friends), as well as Brownies, Beavers and Cubs from local packs. They all sang beautifully accompanied by Will Sidebottom, from local charity Chiltern Music Therapy, playing the guitar. For a brief rendition of Rudolph the red-nosed-reindeer, click here. For the interval, refreshments were generously supplied by Budgens and served by St Mary’s.

Members of the Memory Pathway group, run by Lindengate, a Mental Health Charity in Wendover, made a memory tree and encouraged everyone to write a short Christmas memory and place it on the tree. As they left, Father Christmas gave everyone a star Tree Decoration made by Wendover Wood.