Dementia awareness events held on the Leeds-Morecambe line

During the two-week Dementia Action Week, which started on Monday 13 May and ended on Sunday 26 May, Bentham Line Friends paid two visits and took part in a special event.

The 75-mile Bentham Line is also known as the Leeds-Morecambe Line.

The meeting at Headingley Rugby Stadium was organized by Leeds Older People’s Forum and enabled Leeds-Morecambe Community Rail Partnership (CRP) to make new contacts to work with when ensuring the Bentham Line remains dementia friendly.

One of the visits saw members of the Low Bentham Institute’s Wednesday Lunch Club travel to the Brief Encounter Bistro and Heritage Center in Carnforth on Wednesday 15 May.

Bentham and the Dementia-Friendly Community District took part in the second trip, also to Carnforth.

The aim of the journeys was to help organizations in the communities along the Bentham line who carry out dementia related work enjoy a day out on the train.

Indeed, Leeds-Morecambe Community Rail Partnership is proud that the line was the first in the UK to be designated dementia friendly.

If other groups in the area would like to organize a day out, they are invited to email them via [email protected].

We had a wonderful day and thank you very much for arranging the event and for your support on the trip. We would also like to thank Northern for providing a ticket for the group.

Andrea Touchy, organizer of the Lunch Club

We are delighted to once again be able to help so many people have a great day and evoke memories of yesteryear. Carnforth Heritage Center has many artefacts and displays that help those living with dementia to reminisce about their youth and it was clear that everyone enjoyed the trip.

CRP would be delighted to help organizations in the communities along the 75 miles of our route enjoy a day of activity. We already run trips for the Skipton Dementia-Friendly community and elsewhere, but have the capacity to do the same for other groups of 8 to 30 people. A variety of activities and destinations are available along the entire line from Morecambe and Lancaster to the Aire Valley. We invite organizations to contact us if they have a group that could benefit in the same way.

Rod Tickner, CRP Vice President