By Jill Stocks
Horsforth’s Grove Cinema presented a special showing in association with Dementia Friendly Horsforth, raising awareness of dementia and the effect the diagnosis of a family member can have.
Lost for Words stars Pete Postlethwaite and Thora Hird tells the story of a family’s experience of dementia and the effect it has on family life.
Chris Calvert is the chair of Dementia Friendly Horsforth and spoke of the work they do at the screening.
He told us: “This screening is in association with Dementia Friendly Horsforth. And it’s really good that there’s a lot of people coming to watch it to raise awareness, to understand a bit more about dementia.
“Our whole aim is raising awareness within the community. We recently had Dementia Action Week so we’ve been doing a lot of engagement recently so this is a really good little extra after that to reach a few more people.”
Chris became involved with the group several years ago, inspired by his personal experience of dementia: “My grandad passed away from Alzheimer’s in 2008. I used to be a town councillor in Horsforth and when I came on to the town council Valerie Wood-Robinson, who founded Dementia Friendly Horsforth, was in a working group for dementia friendly.
“Straight away wanted to join it because as soon as my Grandad passed away, he and I were very close, and I said to myself I would do everything in my power every single day to fight against it for him and as soon as I came on to the town council it was something I definitely wanted to get involved in. Valerie kind of took it away and it is now a separate steering group.”
The steering group has over a dozen members now representing people from across the community:
“There’s about 15 of us. We’re from across all sectors in Horsforth so there’s some people from more the care sector, we’ve got affiliation with Right at Home in Horsforth and Home Instead, we’ve got people who just have a local interest in it who maybe have a family member who had it or who are living with it and we’ve also got town councillors as well.
“We’ve got Cllr Tracy Stones, who is one of the Hall Park town councillors, and we’ve got Cllr Mark Fletcher, who is the dementia champion for the Town Council, so it’s great to have him on board as well. We’ve got a cross section of people involved. There’s also private residents who want to be involved as well who are on it.”
Chris was keen to acknowledge the turn out for the screening: “Thank you to everyone who’s come this evening to watch this film to gain a bit more of an understanding as to what it’s like for somebody living with dementia and their relatives.”
You can find out more about Dementia Friendly Horsforth on their facebook page.
The Grove Cinema in Horsforth is held monthly at the Grove Centre, off Town Street. Films are shown on a big screen and there is an interval with refreshments. The screenings are free but donations are welcomed.
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