Member Article

A Ball To Remember For 10th Anniversary

A charity that brings joy into the lives of people living with dementia is celebrating its first successful decade supporting people in the North East, by holding a commemorative ball.

Silverline Memories, the creation of Founding-CEO Sandra Coulter, is hosting the Hollywood themed ball on Saturday May 11th, at the Grand Hotel, Gosforth Park.

Set up 10 years ago the charity, which is based in Kenton, was founded because of a passionate belief that life should not end with a diagnosis of dementia. The team work hard to provide opportunities to keep people active and engaged, connecting with each other to enjoy positive mental health and wellbeing. Sandra said:

“We are so excited to launch the ticket sales for our celebratory ball, which mark the achievements of not only our team and volunteers but also our service users and their families, many of whom have been with us for much of the journey.

“To make the ball a huge success we are reaching out to anyone who can support with sponsorship, donations for our raffles and fundraisers and of course, to come along and celebrate by buying tickets. The nights entertainment is being provided by Marty Craggs of Lindisfarne fame, so it is guaranteed to be a great event!”

The charity currently supports 280 people across 158 households, and with its 2024 fundraising drive and its new wellbeing centre recently opened at Kenton Shopping Centre, the team hope to be able to support many more families who are affected by the condition. Sandra said:

“We started off with just three couples on the very first week!  As the numbers grew, we also grew the number of initiatives we offered, responding to the needs of our members as they were articulated to us. Our specialist support includes café groups, tea dances, choirs, weekly meet up socials, advocacy and much, much more. Many of our service users claim to have met their very best friends here, and with the sensory space we are currently developing, there will also be time for quiet reflection and decompression from the emotions that accompany dementia.”

This all, of course, costs money and although the charity is funded by grants from both national and local trusts and organisations, the generosity of supporters and corporate donations are key. With that in mind, Silverline Memories are reaching out to anyone who would like to sponsor the event, provide a prize or any restaurants / food outlets who will donate a voucher to their grub grab raffle.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Antonia Brindle .