Welcome to Digging for Dementia’s new trustee!

A huge, warm welcome to Digging for Dementia’s new trustee, Jemma Armytage! In addition to being a longtime personal friend, Jemma has been incredibly supportive of Digging for Dementia from the very beginning, baking yummy cakes for fundraisers, attending events, and offering lots of help and advice along the way. I’m thrilled to have Jemma on board, and I know she’ll be a great addition to the project. This news also represents a rather significant step in the development of Digging for Dementia – until now, it’s been something of a one-woman operation, albeit with some fantastic support from others along the way, and I’m so excited that the project has now reached a point at which I find myself in need of extra help. Welcome aboard, Jemma, and thank you so much for all your support so far!

 

If you’d like to see some of Jemma’s wonderful cakes and treats, pay her a visit her over at Jam Jar Bakes. Warning: may cause hunger!

Meanwhile, down in Ordsall…

This week, I attended a meeting of the Ordsall Community Allotment Society for the first time. The group have very kindly permitted me to have two of the community allotment plots on their new site, which is due to be completed by early April. It’s a very rare thing to meet such supportive and enthusiastic people- they were so welcoming of Digging for Dementia, and have even discussed DFD with their local GP, who would also like to support the project. The group have worked so hard to build the community allotment project from the ground up, and their dedication is really inspiring. I think that my little project will be very much at home among such lovely people, and I can’t wait to get started!

 

The expansion of Digging for Dementia will lead to many more exciting developments over the coming months, not to mention much more work! I plan to launch the Ordsall site in May, so I’ll be recruiting participants and volunteers from March onwards. If you know anyone who would like to attend the sessions, or volunteer their services, please contact me at diggingfordementia@hotmail.co.uk. I look forward to sharing more exciting news with you as Digging for Dementia continues to grow!

 

 

DFD awarded a Health Innovation Fund grant!

Hello, lovely Digging for Dementia fans!

 

As some of you may know, I recently submitted a Health Innovation Fund bid, with the assistance of the ever-supportive Salford City Council. Yesterday, I received some monumental news- Digging for Dementia has been awarded £4000 of funding!!! I’m delighted, and still a little bit in shock! When I launched Digging for Dementia, I knew that I had a good and much-needed idea, but to have received such public, governmental, and financial support is more than I could ever have hoped for. I’d like to take this opportunity to say yet another huge thank you to everyone who’s supported DFD so far – the exponential growth of the project would not have been possible without the help of everyone who believed in my little idea!

 

The money will be used to create raised beds at our new Ordsall allotment sites; to purchase equipment for the new sites; to assist with participants’ transport costs; to advertise the project to new participants and volunteers; and to cover the costs of insurance, refreshments and other miscellany. This funding will secure the future of Digging for Dementia for a long time to come, and will enable me to develop the project far more than I ever could on my own. I can’t wait until Winter is over, and Digging for Dementia sessions can begin again! Stay tuned for more exciting developments!

 

Sarah