A pair of friends are walking the length of the UK as part of a gruelling effort to raise money for a vital Dunblane service which supports those living with dementia and their families.
Mary Abercrombie and pal Helen Scott are both regulars in taking on long distance for charity for various causes - but after Mary’s in-laws received support from the dementia cafe service offered by Dementia Friendly Dunblane, they decided to take it one step further.
The pair set off for their trek from Land’s End on Friday (April 7) and are hoping to complete the 1,100 miles to John o’Groats in around 60 days.
As she entered day four of the walk on Monday, Mary told the Observer: “Helen and I are old school friends and we do long walks like this a fair bit and it was while we were doing one last year that we said we fancied doing a big one.
“I live in Dunblane and during lockdown, the dementia cafe was hugely supportive to us as a family; as a former GP, I realise the significance of people getting extra help with dementia and that includes the families as well.
“We’ve spent the last year planning out the route for the walk and my husband has got his motorhome which can help with supporting us and then Helen’s parents live in the Midlands so they’ll be ferrying us back and forward a bit as well.
“The plan was to keep things pretty low key, but once I mentioned it to the cafe, then we got loads of sponsorship on the JustGiving page, so that keeps the pressure on before you start to keep going because you know people are keeping track of things.”
The Braeport Memory Cafe has been a project run by a group of volunteers - Dementia Friendly Dunblane - since 2017 under the auspices of Dunblane Development Trust and is open to people with mild to moderate dementia and their families/carers.
It provides a warm and welcoming environment for people to meet old friends and make new ones, as well as an opportunity to enjoy a programme of activities.
Breda Seaman, project coordinator for Dementia Friendly Dunblane, said the group was “absolutely over the moon” that Mary has chosen them to be the beneficiary of the walk.
Breda added: “Dunblane has the highest number of people with a diagnosis of dementia in the Forth Valley and we’ve had people coming to use the cafe from Bridge of Allan, Killin, Dollar and even as far afield as Auchterarder.
“We’re absolutely over the moon that Mary thought of doing this and chose ourselves; it’s a great honour that families appreciate what we do and events like this and other donations just help support the work that we do.”
To support Mary and Helen’s efforts, you can visit their JustGiving page at justgiving.com/crowdfunding/mary-abercrombie-lejog
