Bishop reaches out with plea over dementia

The Bishop of Wakefield is urging people to join hands around the city's cathedral to show they are united against dementia.
REACH OUT: The Bishop of Wakefield, Tony Robinson, wants people  to join hands around the cathedral on May 17 to  highlight  dementia.REACH OUT: The Bishop of Wakefield, Tony Robinson, wants people  to join hands around the cathedral on May 17 to  highlight  dementia.
REACH OUT: The Bishop of Wakefield, Tony Robinson, wants people to join hands around the cathedral on May 17 to highlight dementia.

The action is part of Bishop Tony’s ongoing campaign to tackle the stigma and lack of understanding around the condition. He is promoting Dementia Friends across all the churches in the towns of Pontefract, Barnsley and the city of Wakefield.

He has first hand experience of the disease in his own family and has asked all organisations who are working to become dementia friendly to link hands round the cathedral on Wednesday, May 17 at 1pm.

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The event is part of the latest national campaign by the Alzheimer’s Society for Dementia Awareness Week.

Bishop Tony said: “We will be joining hands around Wakefield Cathedral on May 17 as a sign that as a church we are doing our best in this area to make our churches dementia friendly and take seriously our care for those suffering from this debilitating disease.

“I know from personal experience at the present time how my own mother-in-law is increasingly in need of constant care and help.”

On the day there will be a quiet area inside the cathedral for anyone wanting to light a candle for those and their families living with the disease. There will also be display stands to promote awareness by different partner agencies and a Dementia Friends Awareness Session in one of the side chapels for anyone who wants to attend.

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The event will run from 1pm to 3pm. It is part of the ongoing dementia awareness strategy. Castleford Team Parish worked alongside UK’s largest Christian disability charity to become the first dementia friendly church team in the diocese.