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  1. Pendle Hill conquered in aid of mental health and well-being

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    Why you ask, would we brave bumping into any remaining witches, so close to Halloween?

    Well… we conquered the 360m ascent to help us reflect on the daily up-hill mountain that our services users often face and to raise money for us to extend our advocacy services to vulnerable individuals in the local community.

    So, after a quick morning cup of coffee and with our friends from BNI Diamond Chapter, Preston, a team of 25 set off from the carpark in high spirits.

    The going was fairly easy (at first) and we stopped to admire the view at Lower Ogden Reservoir.

    At the impressive dam wall, we headed up the right hand side on a rough path to reach the Upper Ogden Reservoir.  We followed this higher path through the valley and even crossed over the Boar Clough stream!

    Following the marker stones for the route of the Pendle Way, after crossing the stream we turned right and ascended steeply north on the rough path up the shoulder of Boar Clough.

    After a quick pit stop, our thoughts tuned to our ultimate end goal, ‘the summit of Pendle Hill’ known as Beacon End or Big End. We continued on (through the mud!) and reached the summit where we found an OS trig point pillar sat on an impressive circular stone cairn.

    We were at a height of 557m above sea level and took in the spectacular view where apparently on clear day you can see the Peak District, Yorkshire Dales, Morecambe Bay, the Forest of Bowland and of course the sprawling Lancashire mill towns.

    After congratulating ourselves on our achievement of reaching the top, we then realised that we were only in fact halfway!  It was time for our rocky descent and headed for the picturesque village of Barley which was a great place to finish the walk.

    Overall a brilliant experience and every one of us experienced highs and lows and then ultimately a great sense of achievement.

    We thank everyone for their sponsorship.  See you there next year???

  2. Demonstrating our support for Dementia Awareness Week

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    Dementia is set to be the 21st century’s biggest killer. But awareness and understanding remains low and many families are facing it alone.

    To play our part the awareness week, we thought we would share how we help people living with dementia through our highly skilled advocacy service.

    At Advocacy Focus, we have a vast experience of helping to give support and understanding and practical support to those living with dementia, and their families. We have 12 trained dementia friends and are in the process of training up a further 6 team members.

    Dementia is set to be the 21st century’s biggest killer. But awareness and understanding remains low and many families are facing it alone.

    To play our part the awareness week, we thought we would share how we help people living with dementia through our highly skilled advocacy service.

    At Advocacy Focus, we have a vast experience of helping to give support and understanding and practical support to those living with dementia, and their families. We have 12 trained dementia friends and are in the process of training up a further 6 team members.

    How Advocacy helped Leonard*

    Our Independent Advocate Becci recently acted as a Paid Relevant Persons Representative (RPR) for an individual who was living in a care home with no friends or family.

    Unfortunately, the Leonard was unhappy with being in the care home and would often pack his belongings and sit by the front door for long periods. 

    Becci visited him every month and, as a result of working with the client over a period of time and building up a relationship, it was discovered that the client was not happy in the care home due to not being able to go out, and there being a lot of noise coming from the resident in the room next to him, meaning he could not sleep. 

    Taking the time to listen to Leonard’s concerns meant that we could then help to address the specific concerns.

    As is our duty as the person’s representative, we take our role very seriously and we worked closely with the care home staff and the person’s Legal Power of Attorney and as a result, he has been able to visit shops in the local area, garden centres, go for walks along the lake and go to the pub. 

    We also raised Leonard’s concerns around the noise at night to staff in the care home and he was offered an alternative room in a quieter area of the home which he accepted. 

    Leonard is now very happy in the care home, is able to maintain access to the local community, and feels his new room is “top notch”. This is just one example of how we can help people, even those living with dementia to have a better quality of life and achieve the things that matter to them.

    To find out about how Advocacy can help you or someone you know, phone 0300 323 0965 or email admin@advocacyfocus.org.uk

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