Axminster dementia friendly team nominated for award
Some of the volunteers involved in running the Axminster Memory Cafe and Dementia Friendly Axminster. Picture: SUBMITTED - Credit: Archant
Shiobhan Pickering, Sam Over and their helpers are in line for a Devon and Cornwall Police Volunteer Award
The team behind the Dementia Friendly Axminster Project has been nominated for a Devon and Cornwall Police Volunteer Award.
Organisers Shiobhan Pickering and Sam Over told The Herald they were ‘shocked and excited’ by the nomination.
The award ceremony takes place in Saltash on June 5.
The citation reads: “Shiobhan Pickering, Sam Over and team of volunteers run the Dementia Friendly Axminster project.
You may also want to watch:
“They spend hours every week organising wonderful events and sessions to benefit others and are so passionate about what they do. They initially funded the project themselves. Shiobhan as Dementia Matron and Sam, who has worked in dementia care in the NHS previously, want to increase the awareness of dementia and help people to understand what it is like to living with it. “They are striving to make positive changes so those living with dementia can continue to live independently, continue shopping, banking, using the phone and socialising etc.
“People wouldn’t be able to cope without Shiobhan and Sam and their hard work with the local memory café and Dementia Friendly Axminster.
Most Read
- 1 Honiton's Freya gets the chop for the Little Princess Trust
- 2 New contractors to roll out fibre broadband across South West
- 3 Virtual start to 2021 season for Axe Valley Runners
- 4 The amazing Mr Hicks: a croquet legend
- 5 How would you feel about giving up your car?
- 6 Devon Air Ambulance team looks back on 2020
- 7 Deal struck on Cranbrook town centre
- 8 Patients asked to stay away from Honiton Surgery
- 9 '2020 was the worst year of my life so far' - Molly Bond
- 10 'Big Lie' politics go back further than Donald Trump - Paul Arnott
“The project includes working with business, councils, care home, hospitals and voluntary agencies, all to make them aware of changes they can make to improve lives. They have benefited from grants, fundraising through the councils and local people/businesses.
“There is no other work like this being done in the community and there is 350 to 400 people living in Axminster with dementia.
“The nominator believes that the work Shiobhan and Sam do is having a positive and beneficial impact on all the community. They have received so much positive feedback over social media for this work. Shiobhan and Sam initially started running the Memory Café and decided the next step was to transform Axminster into a Dementia Friendly Community.
“They are always putting others first and plan everything they do around the needs and wishes of others. Many of us in the community would like to express our thanks and support for all they do and feel they are very worthy of being recognized for doing something the community for their community which is much needed.”
