United – Caring For Our Loved Ones Living with Dementia by Gina Awad and Tony Husband Available NOW
Our History
Exeter Dementia Action Alliance (EDAA) is a charitable foundation running a range of activities raising awareness of dementia and – alongside many partners and allies – working towards a dementia-friendly city.
We believe that Exeter should be a city in which every organisation respects and values people affected by dementia and makes practical changes to enable people with dementia to live independently and empowered to participate in the community.
The Exeter Dementia Alliance has been raising awareness of dementia across the city since 2015 and during this time has received local, regional, and national recognition for innovative approaches to the challenges placed by dementia on families and communities.
The Alliance has delivered over 160 Dementia awareness sessions reaching over 2500 individuals to organisations and community groups across the city. These sessions have inspired practical change such as dementia accessible signage, dementia friendly cinema screenings, a GP Dementia friendly pocket resource guide distributed across Devon, links with schools and care homes. Cartoonist Tony Husband has been a great supporter of our work and together we have created two fully illustrated calendars generating wide appeal as an exceptional educational resource.
Gina Awad who founded and leads the Alliance is proud to share her new book ‘United – Caring for Our Loved Ones Living with Dementia’, illustrated by Tony Husband. It is a short read with a big heart following seven families sharing their personal stories of living with dementia.
“A beautiful and vividly moving book that brings home the challenges faced those with dementia and their carers” – Sir Tony Robinson
Exeter COSY routes is our latest project, a well-being initiative accessible to all that circles the city at a marathon distance. The opportunity to absorb the scenery of our fantastic city whilst supporting our physical and mental health. It can be walked as part of a team building exercise, family or group of friends or on your own. At a distance of 26.2 miles encompassing 8 smaller routes a number of keen runners have enjoyed running it. Featured on Songs of Praise during Dementia Action Week in May in 2021 we are very proud of what we’ve created and intend to develop. Find out more here
Testimonials
“The dementia session was brilliant. It was incredibly humbling to understand the life changes people face and I would recommend the session to everyone. Gina is very knowledgeable and delivers the session with both credibility and sensitivity towards a very topic that impacts so many of us. It was a real eye opener for me, and I only wish I had done it sooner.”
“Gina made it easier to feel positive and gave an informative range of adaptions and strategies I could use to live well with dementia. Thanks, Gina for articulating the unspoken where others can’t or won’t.”
“Thank you, Gina for presenting such an informative and interactive session on dementia. It really helped to break the stigma associated with dementia and I learnt a lot which I will take away with me in my personal as well as work life.”
“What an insightful and thought-provoking session with Gina today as part of our partnership and roll out. It really made me think, understand the depth and breadth of dementia causes and impacts and was a brilliant extension of our own vulnerability education programme”.
“This will really help our people develop their own understanding and skills, it will help us serve our vulnerable customers better and it will allow us to join the many people now who can spread the word and knowledge in an increasingly vast number of people who have experienced this. A brilliant organisation and investment of our time.”
“It was extremely eye opening and educational to understand how many different types of Dementia there are. Since having the awareness session I went to my doctors and noticed the signs for certain things (toilets, reception etc) which Gina mentioned she had been working hard to get into places. Staggering the amount of people who live with the condition in the UK and worldwide.”