Chris attended a local dementia workshop, aimed at informing people about the disease.
Having been affected by the disease firsthand, he believes people should be more aware of it.
It’s estimated that over 800,000 people in the UK have dementia – a disease that can impact memory, speech and understanding.
Grayling told Eagle why he hopes to raise public awareness: “There are more and more families who are experiencing dementia, I’ve experienced dementia in my family.
“It’s probably our biggest health and social care challenge in this ageing population.”
He visited a workshop at Helping Hands in Epsom – a charity that provides support to sufferers in the area.
The workshops offer information and advice on the disease, Grayling explains why services like this are needed: “Unless you’ve experienced dementia in your family, you don’t understand it, you don’t see the signs emerging and you’re less well equipped to deal with it when it does affect your family.
“Workshops and people building awareness of dementia in the community is a really important thing to do.”
Donna Tiller is the Branch Manager of Helping Hand’s Epsom store, she explains why they began the workshops: “Although a lot of people think they know a lot about dementia, and they’re living with parents with dementia – we thought we needed to explain it a bit more.”
