Chadwick Lawrence and Dementia Awareness Week – What’s To Come

Here at Chadwick Lawrence our dementia committee are busy organising various events throughout the year as part of our commitment to supporting those living with dementia, their families, carers and friends. We have been offering Dementia Friends Information Sessions to our colleagues since 2016 with our own in-house Dementia Ambassador who volunteers with the Alzheimer’s Society, this has evolved in recent years to include a committee of volunteers who work together to raise awareness both with our colleagues and outside the firm.

Our Ambassador also provides Dementia Friends Information Sessions to external groups and companies having visited local companies and schools so they too can become Dementia Friends and understand how dementia can affect people. To date, she has created close to 350 Dementia Friends. The information sessions are interactive and last for an hour, the only things needed to host a session are somewhere for attendees to sit and the desire to learn about this illness and how we can all make a difference.

The partners at Chadwick Lawrence support the efforts of our Ambassador, Sue Preece, and the dementia committee as they understand the impact that this illness has on not only the person living with dementia but also the people around them. Sue says “Being given the opportunity to raise awareness across our local communities is incredibly important to me having travelled the road of caring for a loved one through dementia, having the understanding and support of those around you has a massive impact through a difficult time and my wish is that no-one finds themselves navigating this alone. We formed the committee to enable us to do more both for our colleagues and throughout West Yorkshire, raising awareness and funds for research and services”.

We asked some of our committee what prompted them to volunteer for this endeavour, Bhavna Patel, a partner at Chadwick Lawrence and a great asset to our committee says “I decided to become involved as I was keen to learn more about what it is like to live with dementia. Hopefully, with greater understanding, I can learn to support and raise awareness for people and families who are affected by this growing condition. It is important to learn the signs and symptoms of those who may be affected by dementia. I am conscious that it should not be a taboo subject and I am keen to extend the kindness and offer support in both the local and wider community. I am sure that if we can teach people about the condition and ways of helping, then there is hope for people suffering from the condition to feel confident in going about their daily lives in the hope that people will understand their behaviour and actions in public.”

Cath Milnes is always enthusiastic about giving her time to the committee and says “The reason I wanted to get involved was down to my own personal experience of dementia. My Dad was diagnosed with a very rare form of Dementia in his early 60s and unfortunately only lived until 68. To see what he (and others) had to go through on a daily basis was a real eye-opener and at the time Alzheimer’s and Dementia were rarely talked about. I really wanted to get the subject out there in the open and to help make people aware of this cruel disease both for the person suffering from Dementia but also for the relatives and friends of those supporting them.”

Michelle Myers, who is the driving force of the committee at our Guiseley office says “I couldn’t not! Having a loved one with dementia means I want to do all I can to promote understanding. Being involved, means my kids are involved too! I feel this is something important to teach them and because of their gran, something they want to do, so they feel they are being proactive. Seeing the care home residents face receiving gifts is reason in itself!”

During Dementia Action Week 13th – 19th May we will be sharing more blogs from our colleagues as well as hosting a firm-wide bake-off and cake sale on Friday 17th May. We are also supporting Carers Week in June and holding fundraisers in July across the firm alongside volunteering with local dementia groups throughout the year.

Our biggest project each year is our annual gift drive, every Christmas we deliver gifts to local residential and nursing homes specialising in dementia care, spreading some joy in our community. Many of these gifts are hand-made throughout the year by our colleagues and include therapeutic items such as twiddle muffs and bags as well as items donated, the collection is already well underway for 2024. Read more on the drive here.