Nusrat Ghani, MP for Wealden, has met Rotherfield St Martin Charity Manager Vicky Cheeseman and Volunteer Coordinator and Dementia Champion Iona Baily, to learn more about the expansion of their dementia programme and commit to making Wealden dementia friendly.
Rotherfield St Martin (RSM) is a community-led charity dedicated to providing support and preventing isolation and loneliness for older people living in Rotherfield and surrounding areas. To spread awareness about dementia, RSM are aiming to make Rotherfield the first fully dementia friendly village in Wealden by getting organisations and business in the community to sign up to the Dementia Charter and commit to make small, dementia-friendly changes. This will not only benefit those living with Dementia but also their families, safe in the knowledge that their loved ones are surrounded by a community that understands and cares.
Since 2015, Nus has been a Dementia Friend, an initiative run by Alzheimer’s UK. She previously chaired the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Older People and launched the Sussex Elders’ Commission report in 2016 which addressed safety for older people. Nus has long been working with Rotherfield St Martin and she is fully supporting the charity in this project and has signed the Dementia Charter herself.
Nusrat Ghani said: “I am immensely proud of all our wonderful carers in Wealden who provide a better quality of life for people suffering from dementia. Rotherfield St Martin are a fantastic local charity and are selflessly dedicating their time to supporting our elderly and vulnerable. With over 10,000 people living with dementia in East Sussex, we must make sure that we do our bit to ensure that those people and their families feel safe and understood by the community. I am proud that Wealden is leading the way in making our communities dementia friendly and I am fully supporting RSM in this project. I have proudly signed up to the Dementia Charter and I hope many businesses and organisations will follow suit.”
