Dementia support group wins King's Award

The support group was founded by Heather Brown and Paul Dowler, who married after meeting at a dementia support cafe she set up

A group of volunteers supporting people with dementia and their carers have been awarded The King's Award for Voluntary Service.

The Warwickshire community group talkdementia will receive the award, which is the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK and is equivalent to an MBE.

The group was founded in 2021 by Heather Brown and Paul Dowler, who married after meeting at the Wellesbourne Dementia Café that she had set up in January 2016. Both of their former spouses had dementia.

Five of the original volunteers are still part of the team as this dementia friendly café in Wellesbourne approaches its 10th anniversary.

The assistance of 35 local volunteers enables the couple, through the gateway of six dementia friendly cafes, to work voluntarily alongside medical professionals, national charities and local organisations.

They provide practical advice and emotional support to those families and dementia carers living locally within South Warwickshire and North Cotswolds.

Ms Brown and Mr Dowler both cared for their former spouses when they had dementia, Mr Dowler for his late wife Mary, and Ms Brown for her late husband Dave.

"Because both our loved ones had dementia that's what brought us together," Ms Brown said.

Mr Dowler said: "It's incredible really that dementia is such a cruel illness and ironically because we have both been through it, here we are."

The King's Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by local volunteer groups to support their communities and was created in 2002 to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

This year marks the third of The King's Award for Voluntary Service and recipients are announced annually on 14 November.

Representatives of talkdementia will receive the award crystal and certificate from Tim Cox, the King's Lord-Lieutenant of Warwickshire in the coming months and in addition, two volunteers from talkdementia will attend a Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace.