Memory Walks: The first of this year’s events takes place

SATURDAY saw the first of this year’s Memory Walks and it was a date Anne O’Donnell wasn’t going to miss.

Big-hearted Anne was a volunteer at the event in Milngavie, near Glasgow, encouraging and chatting to the walkers as they made their way around the scenic route.

She works with the Student Loans Company in Glasgow and helps out a number of charities, but Alzheimer Scotland is one very close to her heart thanks to the support and guidance they offered when her mum was diagnosed with dementia eight years ago.

“I’ve been volunteering for around five years now, just trying to promote the charity any way I can,” said the mum, from Lennoxtown in East Dunbartonshire.

“I didn’t know a lot about the condition when my mum was diagnosed with vascular dementia. Our family felt very much in the dark about what help and support was available to us and much of the information we did get was disjointed.”

That changed when they were made aware of Alzheimer Scotland and her mum, Margaret McKinnon, was able to spend all but the last six months of her life continuing to live at home.

“Now that I know more about it, I think Mum had dementia much longer than we realised,” continued Anne, whose mum died two years ago.

“My dad had been diagnosed with cancer and all attention was on him. It was only when he passed away that we started to notice changes in her.

“It was wee things, like when she went shopping and she would stand and stare at the shelves, or she would go to the bank and lift out money only to pay with her credit card in the next shop she went to. We were ignorant and thought it was just old age.”

Tests showed she had vascular dementia.

“It was slow developing so she was able to function until two years before she passed away.

“Mum was a very strong woman – she was from Irish stock and had six brothers – and was hard-working, caring, community-minded and continued helping people into her 70s. She was always so busy.

“She lived in sheltered housing in Bearsden, where one of my sisters was the warden.

“Mum didn’t wander but she constantly repeated herself. As time went on she could no longer watch television or read a book because she couldn’t follow what was happening.

“She would just get up and get dressed and sit in her chair, although there were lots of people who came in to support her.” Margaret spent her final months in a care home, which Anne still visits to catch up with residents and staff.

Last year she volunteered for the Milngavie Memory Walk and enjoyed the experience so much she did it again yesterday.

She’s not the only one signing up – lots of Sunday Post readers have been getting involved and latest figures from Alzheimer Scotland show sign-up figures are nearly 60% higher than last year. Last weekend alone, scores of people signed up for a walk.

“It’s great being there to encourage people and chat to them as they pass by,” Anne added.

“There’s such a great community vibe around it and I can see how much people get out of just being part of it, so there was no doubt I wanted to do it again.”

Visit memorywalksscotland.org to sign up to your local Memory Walk now.

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