New memory café stocks up on crockery thanks to funeral firm

A new community café designed to bring dementia patients and their carers together is ready to open its doors after it took delivery of dozens of pieces of crockery donated by a funeral firm.

The Eastwood Memory Café plans to meet on the second Tuesday of every month to give people with dementia and their carers the opportunity to socialise over lunch.

The café, which is based at Plumptre Hall, behind St Mary’s Church in Church Street, Eastwood, held its first meeting last week and is being run by a team of 13 volunteers.

It has been funded by grants and donations from a host of local organisations and businesses including Gillotts Funeral Directors, which based around the corner in Nottingham Road, and donated £200 to buy all the plates and bowls necessary to serve the meals.

More funding has come from NHS Nottingham West Clinical Commissioning Group in partnership with Broxtowe Borough Council, as part of the Broxtowe Health Partnership.

Not only will the café enable visitors to chat and enjoy lunch, it will also offer activities such as chair-based exercise set to music, jigsaw puzzles, reflexology and painting.

In the future it plans to run day trips and work with local schools, businesses and groups to create a more dementia-friendly community.

Diane Rowley, chair of the Eastwood Memory Café, said: “We are extremely grateful to Gillotts and everyone else who has supported us in our efforts to get our café open.

“The inspiration for launching our café came from a visit to a similar scheme in Beeston, where we saw the tremendous difference that it was making to its visitors’ lives.

“Dementia is a devastating condition which can lead to terrible isolation and loneliness for everybody it affects. Not only will our memory café bring them together, it will give them a safe, supportive space in which to talk without feeling judged and somewhere they can enjoy stimulating activities and therapies.”

Joanne Hutsby, a partner in Gillotts, which also operates branches in Kimberley, Selston, Heanor and Stapleford, said: “We understand from the families we work with how catastrophic the effects of dementia can be, so as a local company we wanted to do what we could to help get the café off the ground.

“We wish Diane and her team of volunteers all the very best for the future.”