Stone’s Alzheimer’s drop-in club celebrated its fourth anniversary earlier this month – on the very day the Government made drugs to treat the condition more widely available.
From just a handful of members, the drop-in has grown to an average attendance of 25 to 30 people with Alzheimer’s and carers. Membership is rising, despite the sad loss of many members this year. One of them was founder and organiser Stella Winsor’s husband Dennis. “The club is his legacy,” she said.
Carpet bowls, skittles, quoits, sucker darts, card games, dominoes and sing-alongs are on offer at the bi-monthly Thursday morning sessions at the Christchurch Centre on Christchurch Way. The club can provide transport in the bus it also uses for regular outings.
Stella said: ““Don’t ask Alzheimer’s sufferers whether they’d like to come, just bring them along and watch them enjoy it.”
Carer Ethne Jeffs has attended the drop-in with husband Joe since its formation. She said: “We’re all in the same boat. Everybody understands what we’re going through here. We fit our social life around it.”
The medications the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) agreed to make more available are Aricept, Exelon and Reminyl (which cost £2.80 per patient per day). Nice’s experts have also ruled that a fourth drug, Ebixa, should be made available for patients with severe Alzheimer’s and for some with the moderate form of the disease. Patients should contact their GPs now about accessing these drugs from spring 2011.
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