This post is a little different from my normal Wednesday ones in that it has little to do with blogging, and I won’t be ranting. But, this is probably one of the most important posts I have written alongside my Cervical Screening one. These posts get quite a few views, and if each of you who reads this joins in with the instructions below it would help raise a fair bit of money… Let me explain; Dementia and Alzheimer’s are something close to my heart & when the amazing people over at The Perfume Shop mentioned their new campaign, #TPSMemoriesMatter to me, I knew I wanted to be involved straight away. Alzheimer’s is something that has affected my family directly and also my friends, I am sad to say I am writing this a few days after a member of my best friends family died from a 4+ year struggle with vascular dementia… It’s all too common and sadly not enough coverage is given to this to help raise awareness, and funds. There are some fantastic dementia care facilities such as Lakeside Manor dementia rehab, that really do make a huge difference to many peoples lives though.
Alzheimer’s and dementia are horrible diseases, and with no cure, it’s described as the rolling back of a rug on your life – the more you roll a rug the less is left, which is the same as the person’s memory. There are 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK, and it’s the leading cause of death for women in the UK. Without getting too political the funding and care budgets are more than likely going to be cut over the next 5 years, meaning people like my friends family member are put into normal care homes, and not specialist ones, which in turn means they are left in their little world without people there who fully understand what they need. Not to mention the cost of assisted living, care and support is beyond belief; you can expect to pay well into the thousands each month for specialist dementia care homes.
As we live longer as a nation the numbers of people with this disease is only increasing, making it more important than ever to research effective treatment and possible cures. When talking to my friend about her close family members experience with Dementia the most heart breaking thing was hearing her say how he didn’t even know who she was most of the time, but when he was having moment of lucidness he would tell her not to worry or let people bring her down, that she was beautiful and he loved her dearly.
The Perfume Shop have partnered up with the amazing Alzheimer’s Research UK in order to raise much needed awareness and funds for the charity. Why you ask? Because scent and memory go hand in hand together, and can help trigger a person’s memory or thoughts. Think about it, how many times have you been sat near someone on the train and their perfume reminds you of someone, or a great memory. Or when you walk past a shop and the scent coming from it reminds you of better times?
The #TPSMemoriesMatter campaign is running from Saturday 16th May to Sunday 25th May and all you have to do to help raise funds is tweet your favourite scent based memory to @theperfumeshop using #TPSMemoriesMatter and The Perfume Shop will donate £1 for every tweet. See, you don’t even have to spend a single penny to get involved and help out, just 1 minute of your time to send a tweet. Also, if you’re shopping for perfume in their stores get your perfume gift wrapped (even if it’s just for you, you deserve a present after all) as they are also running fundraising through £1 gift wrapping.
I absolutely love it when brands come up with great ways to support charities and I think the #TPSMemoriesMatter is a fantastic idea and even more so because everyone can get involved, and the message of scent and memory is a great one; we all have those scents that make us fondly remember a moment.
So, what will you be tweeting your scent memory about?
