Legal eagles swoop to help dementia victims

A pop-up cafe at Southerns solicitors in Bank Parade, Burnley, raised £65 and the firm topped this up by another £100 for the Dementia Buddies/Guardian Angels scheme.

Run by the Good Deeds Trust with Lancashire County Council and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue, the scheme funds wristbands for people with dementia so that if they wander away from home an app on an android phone can scan the band and the person's name and a contact number appears.

Southerns was one of several businesses and organisations that took part in a series of pop-up cafes across Lancashire for the project which aims to safeguard people with dementia and also make their families feel more secure if they do go missing.

The Good Deeds Trust has developed four devices to protect vulnerable people and they each use a system that picks up data that displays a generic message asking for help along with a contact number.

The scheme is already in place in Burnley and Pendle and is co-ordinated by Angela Hammonds who is the Community Fire Safety Team Leader for the Pennine area headquarters based at Burnley Fire Station

She said: "The money donated so kindly by Southern`s is very gratefully received.

"It will assist us at Pennine Lancashire community fire safety team in keeping the people of Lancashire safe once again and a thanks go out for their support on funding these devices."

More information about Dementia Buddies can be found at http://dementiabuddy.co.uk.