Crawley card scheme brightens dementia patients' day

Children at Fairway Infant School in Copthorne made and wrote Christmas cards, which were presented to people with dementia at Alzheimer’s Society’s Christmas Carol Concert at St Margaret’s Church, Crawley, on Thursday December 14.

Every child that designed and wrote a Christmas card was given a cuddly toy reindeer from Haskins Garden Centre as a thank you for helping tackle the loneliness and isolation some people with dementia feel over the festive period.

Elisa Vaughan, Alzheimer’s Society operations manager for Sussex, said: “Some of our research has uncovered that over half of people affected by dementia find Christmas to be the most isolating time of the year, with many stating they are dreading the festivities. That’s why we thought, working with Fairway Infant School and Haskins Garden Centre, we could help tackle the loneliness some people with dementia feel.”

David Lilly, centre manager at Haskins Garden Centre in Snowhill, commented: “We are honoured to be donating 60 toy reindeers to the children at Fairway Infant School for their beautiful Christmas card designs. The children were asked to create a Christmas card to help put a smile on someone’s face and in turn, we hope our reindeers will bring a smile to the children’s faces.”

Fairway teacher Emma Singleton said: “The children have been having a different kindness challenge in the lead up to Christmas and as part of this they created cards for people with dementia. They have really loved making the cards and concentrated so hard to create them – they really wanted to help. I think they love their reindeers from Haskins.”