Clair tells us about how her memory loss associated with her encephalitis diagnosis has drawn her closer to her grandmother and their shared love of music and art.

Clair tells us about how her memory loss associated with her encephalitis diagnosis has drawn her closer to her grandmother and their shared love of music and art.

Louisa Bayliss became an Admiral Nurse in 2022. Read how music plays such an important part in her personal and professional lives.

Nicholas was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s 2 years ago. Read how choral and classical music have played, and still play, such an important part in his life.

From Hertfordshire

Clare Childs shares her ‘Sing from the Heart’ project with us:

Her dementia friendly singalong started in a local care home in September 2019. Shortly after, the live singalong got postponed and she went online in March 2020. The project has gotten 140,000 videos views since. For December 2020, Clare created a musical advent calendar with daily videos for care homes, with songs to sing for residents living with memory loss or dementia (as reported by ITV News in the video below). She was inspired by her mother, who has dementia and enjoys singalongs.

Clare is now looking to develop this further to keep care homes, carers and families living with dementia connected in these isolating times! She is looking for funding that could help make that happen. Here is how to watch the videos and get in touch with Clare:

FACEBOOK Sing from the Heart – Harpenden: https://www.facebook.com/claresingfromtheheart/

YOUTUBE Sing from the Heart Harpenden: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCutgnvGbq9z0FdBDSqoEp4w

PLAYLIST Songs: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLILE2fquUYF0EJQpUWCBDqM_sFYao-vR6

INSTAGRAM: @singfromtheheartuk

TWITTER: @singfromthehea1

From Northamptonshire

My Nanny, who died about a decade ago, had vascular dementia for the last 10-15 years of her life and by the end didn’t know any of us at all. Yet I recall well that she sang along with gusto to “We’ll Meet Again” by Vera Lynn during a music listening session during the last weeks of her life. She even remembered who some of us were while she was singing – encouraging us to sing along. A rare good memory from her final days and one we all treasure.

Song that stood out: Vera Lynn – ‘We’ll Meet Again’

From Hertfordshire

Back in 2016, my wife, Huguette, was in a care home – St Matthew’s in Redbourn – living with an advanced stage of Alzheimer’s disease. She was usually unresponsive and often difficult when staff cared for her.

After speaking to care home staff and members of this charity, I agreed to help create a personalised playlist of music we hoped Huguette would respond to. During my next visit, we played this music and almost immediately Huguette’s face lit up and she started to sing along to the songs she recognised. She was clearly positively stimulated by this music, and her reaction had a positive effect on myself and others present. In later trials care staff were similarly positively stimulated by the evident joy Huguette was experiencing listening and singing.

After this experience the family created a Boom Box of music she responded to which was available to staff and visitors to play to Huguette. There is no doubt that having this playlist enhanced the quality of her remaining life.

Song that stood out: ‘Ne Me Quitte Pas’ – Jacques Brel

From Hertfordshire

My name is Sarah Finch; my mother has been living with dementia for more than 10 years now. When the care home approached me with the opportunity to find some of my mum’s favourite songs, I was naturally very keen for her to participate in anything that could potentially improve the quality of her life!

I was blown away by what happened – my mother was listening to songs that referenced her life when she was young. She no longer speaks properly, but suddenly she engaged, laughed – and then became articulate and joined in the songs. I hadn’t seen my mother like that for a long while.

I am convinced that personal music could open the way to improving life-quality for many, many people having seen and experienced the power music has on the mind. I also believe that the knock on is massive savings for our overstretched NHS!

Song that stood out: ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’ – Noel Coward