Dementia: Job 'changes life' of Swansea woman

Dawn Davies said she felt numb after being diagnosed with dementia

A woman who felt "totally lost" after receiving a diagnosis of early onset dementia said finding a job changed her life.

Dawn Davies, 62, from Swansea said she felt numb when she was diagnosed last year.

"It came about from a rather cheeky comment from my partner," she said.

"He asked me a question and, at the time, my go-to saying was 'oh I've slept since then I don't know'. And he said 'you're losing your marbles'."

Dawn asked her partner for an explanation the next day and he said she was becoming forgetful and should consider seeing a doctor.

After visiting her GP and undergoing a series of tests and scans, Dawn was diagnosed with early onset dementia.

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"I felt very numb, very shocked and a bit lost," she said.

"I felt as though my life was over because the only dementia I had experience of was my mother who had vascular dementia and I thought I was going to go the same way.

"So I basically turned into a bit of a hermit. It was a case of leave me sat on a sofa, don't talk to me.

"I didn't want to eat. I didn't want to go out. Didn't want to shower, didn't want to do anything, I thought my life was over. I was totally lost."

After noticing the Dementia Hub while walking through the Quadrant shopping centre in Swansea, Dawn said her husband suggested she could go in.

"I was met by a lovely lady. She asked me what was up and I told her about my diagnosis and she said don't worry about it.

"So that made me a little bit angry and then she said 'I've got it'. She was diagnosed 10 years ago.

"I was so shocked and I came out with 'well, you don't look like you have' and then I felt so stupid that I'd said that.

"I really wanted to take the words back and she just laughed and said 'well what am I supposed to look like?' And it really made me think because it is an invisible illness."

Dawn began volunteering at the hub and now has a job there

After the initial visit, Dawn decided to start volunteering at the Dementia Hub and was then offered a job as part of a scheme to allow people to have one-on-one conversations with someone else living with dementia.

"When I got a diagnosis I thought 'nobody is going to employ me'," Dawn said.

"Nobody's going to waste time, training, money and all that sort of thing when I couldn't at the time realistically say 'I can give you five years, I can give you eight years or I can give you 15 years'.

"I was very lucky when I came here, it's changed my life.

"I've learnt so much from doing about the different forms of dementia. Everybody is so knowledgeable here and I would encourage anyone who wants to know more about the illness to call in and see us."

Hannah Davies set up the hub to support people living with dementia

The hub was set up by Hannah Davies, who noticed there was a lack of support for people living with dementia after she started caring for her mother who had Alzheimer's disease.

While working as a teacher, she was in meetings with various groups and charities about the need for a pop-in for people to get support.

The other groups were "finding it really tricky to be able to get funding or to get staff to do it, so I just volunteered".

"Within three weeks we found this premises in the Quadrant Centre, which is just perfect for us with all the footfall going by and we managed to get a rolling, monthly contract on the premises and we just opened the doors, seven days a week, as a group of volunteers.

"We didn't have any chairs or tables. The boards are painted by my seven and eight-year-old children and they're just tied up to the walls."

The hub gives advice to about 200 people every month and Hannah now works full time as the project leader.

"A lot of people don't know who to turn to, some people want to start with the diagnosis, so they can come here and make an appointment for a pre-assessment meeting with health board staff," Hannah said.

"Other people want to come in and meet a social worker, so we have social workers that will come here and work out of the hub.

"We have a number of organisations that send members of staff here, it tries to meet any need that somebody has who's supporting someone who has dementia or who's got their own worries about it."

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