Extreme Knitting Redhead: Knit Today Magazine

Friday, February 15, 2008

Knit Today Magazine

As I'm now fully into fund-raising mode I've started to contact everyone who helped me with publicity last year. After the London marathon I was contacted by Janice Broadstock, the editor of Knit Today magazine and she very kindly put a little article about my antics in the magazine. This time I contacted her and she replied almost immediately offering to do a little write-up in issue 20 which is due out at the end of March, just in time for the London marathon. I suggested that she could mention that people might like to come and have a 'Knit-Out' too as it's a lovely day out (weather permitting!) and there is a great pub at about mile 18 which is really close to the road so you get to see the runners close up. She even said she might pop along herself. What a star!

I know the Alzheimer's Research Trust will be happy to provide everyone with lovely purple tee shirts and it would be wonderful to be greeted by a group of knitters at a point where I will most likely be getting tired.

We tried to organise it last year but sadly Rachael Matthews (a talented knit designer) didn't have any luck getting people together in time. What I really need is someone to co-ordinate it and organise a knitting group so I might try contacting one of the knitting groups in central London to see if they could help.

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Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.

Thank you for taking the time to read mum's story and I hope you'll dig deep and sponsor me using the link below to help find a way of beating this destructive disease.