[Gallery] Haydon Wick's award-winning memory cafe celebrates its first birthday

Haydon Wick Parish Council’s Memory Café in Haydon Wick, North Swindon had good reason to throw a party with ponies this month.

After receiving the news that a recent National Lottery Community Funding grant for £10,000 was successful, attendees celebrated the cafe’s first birthday with a special cake and visit from some Shetland Therapy Ponies.

Those present enjoyed grooming and stroking the ponies, and some children from the adjacent nursery school were able to admire the ponies through the fence. The council said the visit sparked some happy memories for those present. 

The day's celebrations did not end there. The Haydon Wick Parish Council was proud to announce that the Memory Cafe, just one year in its development, had won a Local Council Community award for the ‘Most Innovative New Project’ from Community First – a charity working with service providers for communities across Wiltshire & Swindon.

The award was received at the charity’s Annual Meeting & Award Ceremony and was collected by the council’s Chief Officer Georgina Morgan-Denn and Jo Newman Memory Café Coordinator, who were accompanied by two of the cafe’s regular volunteers – Patsy Brinkley and Keren Price.

Patsy and Keren explained why they enjoy staffing the cafe session.

Keren said: "The three of us have been here since the beginning. Because we all get on so well together, it’s just been great. Jo, our coordinator is so great to work with.

“People enjoy coming to the memory cafe, and I think our sessions will prove to be incredibly important during the cost-of-living crisis we are currently facing. The parish council building space is warm, and people can socialise and have refreshments.

“The café sessions are used to motivate people and ensure everyone is having a good time, and giving people the opportunity to socialise with other residents. We meet loads of different people through the initiative and I also have a therapy dog who I bring in sometimes."

Patsy added: "We started with half a dozen people and now our group has grown to around 25 people each time. We dance, we sing and we do arts and crafts with the attendees.

“You don’t need any inhibitions here – I wouldn’t normally dance rock and roll style at ten in the morning but it’s nice to join in with the attendees having fun.”

The future of the cafe has been secured by the National Lottery funding which will help to pay for staff costs, refreshments and entertainment.

The council said feedback from all those who attend the cafe confirmed the importance of the service which provides vital support for those living with dementia and their care givers – helping to reduce any feelings of loneliness and isolation.

Cllr Rebecca Ross, Chair of the Community Development Committee said: “Thanks to the National Lottery, this grant means that we can continue with this particularly important project. This will make an enormous impact on people’s lives.

"The award was the icing on the cake as we are so proud of our cafe and how it helps the community. It is a well-deserved recognition for all involved in making each session so special – we are incredibly fortunate to amazing volunteers, councillors and staff who such pride in the design and delivery of the service”.

Georgina Morgan-Denn, Chief Officer for Haydon Wick Parish Council, said: "The parish council started this venture over a year ago. We received grant funding to get the ball rolling. We employed a fantastic coordinator Jo – who brought so much life and energy to the programme, and we’ve now got a better memory cafe facility than we could have ever hoped for.

“Our recent award recognises the innovation of our community project we have. Personally affected by dementia in our family, this is a very important community asset for Haydon Wick.

“It is important that those living with dementia, and those supporting those with dementia, have a safe and welcoming space to get together. We’re incredibly proud as a council that we’ve been able to make this happen.”

Iris, one of the residents from Orchid Care Home that attended the celebrations, said: "This has been a lovely get-together. It is my first time visiting this dementia café – and the birthday cake has been nice!”

Haydon Wick residents Ian and Lorraine Dallow have been frequent visitors of the memory cafe. 

Ian said: "We started visiting the cafe in February. My wife Lorraine has Alzheimer’s and somebody from a different café put us on to Haydon Wick. She enjoys the sessions and it’s a good mixture of music and craft activities and trips out.

"These sessions are a good way for us to get out of the house, meet other people, make friends, and have fun!”

Lorraine added: "We’ve met a lot of new friends here at the cafe. It’s a nice space, and I enjoy all the different sessions."

Another frequent visitor of the memory cafe is Brenda or 'Bren' from Stratton. She said: "I’m a frequent user of the café. It’s nice because the people we meet are lovely and everyone is happy. We all have fun! I look forward to coming along every week they are running a session.”

The therapy ponies for the celebrations were brought along to the parish council building by Dinky Ponies. 

Sarah Woodland and her mother Anita brought along 14-year-old Poppy, and 9-year-old Georgie to bring smiles to those in attendance. 

Sarah explained: "We’ve been doing this now for a couple of months and we have been visiting different care homes, residential homes and children’s homes. I was given my first couple of ponies, and I bought a trailer and started going out to care homes after I got my licence and insurance.

“Since then Dinky Ponies just got bigger and bigger. We find the ponies have a lovely calming effect on the people we visit and their wellbeing. We also love the atmosphere that our visits leave the homes in.”

Georgie the pony was in training on this occasion, but behaved well amongst the older local residents. 

Sarah added: "We find people with dementia will often remember things through the smell of, or by touching the ponies. We’ve had care home staff say that they found out things they did not know about those under their care, and that the ponies have jogged their memories.

“Some care home staff identify those who they do not think will be particularly forthcoming and will not want to see the ponies, and then those individuals surprise everybody and want to come and make friends with the animals.

“We sometimes see people crying when they meet the ponies, and at first you panic but then you realise that they’re happy tears being cried."

More information about Dinky Ponies can be found on the organisation's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ridgeway2021