The first Dementia Club session of the New Year went very well. We had a very good attendance, 15 of our members plus two guests Maria and Pam who also brought her cute little dog Lottie to meet all the members.

Muz and Faz had already set out on each table some colouring for members to do whilst they were enjoying their teas and coffees and lovely cakes and biscuits. Lisa welcomed everyone and gave some updates and also thanked all the volunteers.

Muz and Faz then started the session with their colourful table tennis, set up for 8 players. The players were asked to roll, bounce and throw the tennis ball and hit it with tennis rackets to the person sitting opposite. The members that took part enjoyed themselves, as shown in the photos below, and table tennis balls were flying everywhere – keeping the volunteers busy catching the balls. The other members that did not take part were given some pictures to colour using colourful pencils.

The session then continued with the usual sitting down yoga with Richard. Richard did some interesting exercises for about 30 minutes. As usual all the members enjoyed the exercises and all joined in and had a laugh.

The yoga was followed by our new music entertainer Aaron. Everybody joined in the singing. Aaron sang some very popular songs which made quite a few members get up and dance. We had a surprise when Terry, one of our members, took the microphone from Aaron and sang, James also joined him. Aaron then started the music quiz asking members to identify the songs and singers by playing a few notes and if they guessed them correctly then they were asked to throw the large red fluffy dice. The aim of course is to try and throw a six to get a high score and beat the previous score from another dementia club. The members enjoyed themselves by getting a lot of points. Unfortunately the score was not high enough this time. The challenge is always fun.

Thank you to our church volunteers Dorothy and Sue for making teas and coffees and Andrew the church warden for setting up the venue. Thank you also to our Rotarians from Barnet; John, Jim, Malcolm and Victor. Thank you to Muz and Faz for providing fun activities. Also, many thanks to Annette for her assistance, Doctor Rebecca Hatjiosif for her support, plus Lisa and Mark for their continuous support making the Dementia Club at St John’s Church successful.