As promised on 8th October here is a little more enlightenment concerning this lovely man and his amazing campaign. Norman suffers with Lewy Body Dementia and I mean suffers. When we met him he was leading the meeting, full of laughter and enthusiasm. But read his blog, he gives the stark truth of his life and it’s heart breaking. He shares his experiences to give us all a better understanding of Dementia.There are several forms of this disease but all cause degeneration of brain cells.This in turn leads to crippling emotional and mental disruption and there is no cure. Norman launched the Purple Angel Dementia Campaign in Torquay to spread the word and to give hope and empowerment to those with this awful disease. There are approximately 850,000 people in the UK coping somehow.Thanks to Norman there are now Dementia Friendly Communities and Memory Cafés across the

Generation of Hope Members from SI Brixham and other guests visited SI Torquay & District to listen to Liz and Barney Bettesworth who were invited to Rosegarth to give a talk and a film show. They came as representatives of Mary’s Meals, an organisation that aims to provide the world’s poorest children with a daily meal. A group of happy ladies gathered in the warm meeting room with the promise of delicious food to come – what a stark contrast to the presentation we were faced with! There was no escape from the abject poverty there before us on the screen. Every school day Mary’s Meals provide more than one million children across 13 countries with a meal in their place of education. On average, it costs just £12.20 to feed a child with Mary’s Meals for a whole year.  The meals are made using

Torquay & District SI were approached  recently by an Activity Co-ordinator , working in a 20 bedded Alzheimers unit in Tipperary, Southern Ireland.  This lady is an admirer of our knitting  work especially the Twiddlemuffs and would love to get some for her residents.   She felt that they would be a great comfort to them. Twiddlemuffs at the moment are not in use in Ireland, so it would be a first. The lady is a member of UK Geratric, and keeps herself updated on anything new that will help her residents have a better quality of life. We have just sent a parcel of Twiddlemuffs to Southern Ireland along with the crochet & knitting patterns for the muffs.  The Activity co-ordinator’s contact details have been passed on to Ireland SI in the hope that one of their clubs would take on this project for Dementia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFU8cU-cICs

FORCE Cancer Charity Life as a Soroptimist can be very busy and we become very focused on our activities.  But there’s no time to be blinkered.  Through our efforts and social interaction its obvious that hundreds of other people are also involved in worthwhile causes. FORCE is a Cancer Charity and it has been such a pleasure to learn more about them since the Tea Party.  Their work is so impressive.  Their wish is to advance cancer care in Exeter and beyond.  Its as if they put their arms around a cancer patient and take care of them in so many ways. They have spent nearly one million pounds on life saving technology.  They run a support and information centre and have dedicated half a million to an outreach Programme.  They fund research at the Devon and Exeter Hospital and also at the University of

We made it pink, so everyone knows we support anyone affected by breast cancer. Recently the ladies from the LIGHT group enjoyed another visit to Rosegarth. They chose to do some more flower arranging and decided that pink should be the prominent colour to support Breast Cancer Awareness. Dress code was pink, flowers were pink, and of course when the magical cakes appeared they were pink.  Everyone had a happy morning and the group kindly made donations in the Breast Cancer Care Box every penny will make a huge difference to people facing breast cancer today. Linda Churchward

What Our Clubs are Collecting

On 8th October a meeting was held at the Purple Angel Memory Café for folks suffering with dementia.  The café is based at the Barton Baptist Church in Torquay and that’s where a group of Torquay Soroptimist’s  arrived on Saturday at 2pm. The atmosphere was very natural and friendly and we were soon introduced to everyone. We delivered our colourful collection of Twiddlemuffs as gifts for the group.  We explained how to use them and took them round for everyone to investigate and choose one to take home.  There were happy faces all round – time to go? No the fun was just about to start! We joined in games from the past, ate sweets from the past, completed a quiz, concentrated on a word search, played musical instruments, sang and ate tea and cake!  You couldn’t help but feel happy.  There was a tinge

Annual Inter Club Event – 7.30 on Tuesday 18th October at Rosegarth Tor Church Road Torquay  – £7.50 We welcome Liz & Barney Bettesworth – Speakers from Mary’s Meals, Members  will be supporting World Porridge Day and collecting donations for the Mary’s Meals Backpack project.

DOUBLE KNITTING & CHUNKY WOOL WANTED SO WE CAN CONTINUE KNITTING TWIDDLEMUFFS FOR PEOPLE SUFFERING FROM DEMENTIA.   Please email torquaydistrictsi@gmail.com