The Sid Valley Memory Cafe is relaunching its campaign to meet its target of £55,000 a year to keep Devon’s first dementia specialist a permanent feature of the Sid Valley for years to come.
A Sidmouth charity is calling on the community to help it reach a £55,000 fundraising target – to continue providing a ‘lifeline’ to dementia patients and their families.
The Sid Valley Memory Café has this week launched the next phase of its Admiral Nurse campaign, which through generous donations originally raised £100,000 to secure Devon’s first dementia specialist.
The memory café has already received funding support from Sidmouth Town Council and the Lottery but now needs £30,000 to meet its newest £55,000 total.
Members of the memory café’s fundraising committee said they must re-start the campaign to ensure Admiral Nurse nurse Heidi Crook becomes a permanent feature for the community.
Duncan Watt, acting chairman of the fundraising group, said: “Just about everyone in the Sid Valley will know of someone whose life has been impacted by dementia, and when this happens, life changes dramatically for the carers as well as for the cared-for.
“Our Admiral Nurse, Heidi is doing a fantastic job helping many families who are sadly affected in this way.
“We need this valuable community resource to continue and therefore, are appealing to the community to back us in this year’s appeal.
“She has been a lifeline to so many people and families who need caring professional help and advice at a most difficult time in their lives.”
The campaign launched in 2015 with the aim to raise two years’ worth of funding totalling £100,000.
Through events and donations the dream was achieved in 13 months and Heidi Crook was appointed as the area’s nurse in March last year.
The café has agreements with Dementia UK and the Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust for an Admiral Nurse specifically for the Sid Valley.
Members of the fundraising committee says the town has a chance to ‘write a book’ that the rest of the UK can follow as more groups across Devon have begun fundraising for their own nurse.
Mr Watt said: “We didn’t set out to be the leaders in Devon; we merely recognised the acute need and wanted to best serve our members and the Sid Valley community.
“The absolute key to success is having the entire community back the cause.”
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