My view on a memorable year – 2016

As we approach the end of 2016, a year that has brought much sadness through the passing of so many talented entertainers (David Bowie, Prince, Carrie Fisher, George Michael but to name a few), I thought I would take the opportunity to share my thoughts on the last year.

It has been truly saddening for many of us to see the passing of some of the worlds most admired entertainers. For me personally, I was struck most by the death of Alan Richman, one of the stars of Harry Potter, and also as an excellent villain I loved to hate, especially in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves and Die Hard! Although saddening to lose so many talented individuals in one year, in every case you have the opportunity to reflect of the fantastic achievements and the amazing legacies left behind. How wonderful for their loved ones, they can put on a record or maybe watch a film and see or hear the person after they have gone.

For me and my family, 2016 will always be a particularly memorable year as it’s the year that we decided to start up Right at Home in South Cheshire. We are incredibly excited to be at the beginning of what we know will be a fantastic home care service in the area, and cannot wait to kick off 2017 by offering our services in the Crewe and Nantwich area, and also creating 40 new and exciting jobs in the area.

We moved into our office in November 2016, achieved registration with the CQC (Care Quality Commission) by the end of November and with the help of our Care Manager, Kirsty we’ve moved quickly to start recruiting a team of Outstanding CareGivers. We ran our first training course in December, which was extremely well received by our new recruits and we look forward to training many more fantastic people as they join us in 2017.

We started working with our first Client in November, who I can honestly say is absolutely delightful. It’s a real honour to support this person along with their very tightly “knit” (she loves knitting – I couldn’t help myself!) family. Already we are starting to see how our services are not only benefitting our Client, who lives with dementia, but also benefitting her daughter who is her main carer.

We’ve been busily fundraising for our choice charity, the Alzheimer’s Society and with the combination of me dragging myself around the Edinburgh Marathon, and raising money in Nantwich Town Square for the Alzheimer’s Elf Day in December, we have collectively raised over £900!

Creating a Dementia Friendly community is something that I am extremely passionate about, and as a Dementia Champion I have so far created over 70 Dementia Friends in Nantwich including the East Cheshire NHS Trust, Natwest, Specsavers, and 6 Church Groups. 2017 will see me push this even further by aiming to create 1000 Dementia Friends – I love a challenge! We are extremely excited to be taking the next step to becoming a truly specialist Dementia home care provider by rolling out our revolutionary Dementia DELAY service (watch this space in Early 2017).

So all in all, 2017 is going to be a truly exciting year for Right at Home South Cheshire!

On a personal note, I look forward (with some anxiety) to my eldest son turning four and starting School in 2017 and his younger brother turning two and hopefully expanding his vocabulary from “Mama, Dada, Yea, No, and Unk!”.

From me and my family, I wish to thank everyone who has supported us so far with the start-up of Right at Home and we wish everyone a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2017.