Extreme Knitting Redhead: A nice surprise

Thursday, July 4, 2013

A nice surprise

An award

Last night I swapped these;

for these;

to go to this with Mike:

You see, I'd been nominated for the award for 'Fundraiser of the year' by the listeners of Arrow fm, a local radio station. We knew that I was in the final few as someone had interviewed Mike about the things I've done for Alzheimers Research UK but we didn't really think I'd win. When it came to my category the announcer started out by saying they'd had loads of nominations and I just thought there was no way that it would be me that won.

But then he started talking about someone who runs marathons and I heard Mike's voice talking about some of the things I've done and the 3 large screens were scrolling through photos of me dressed as a Christmas tree, knitting on the back of a tandem, running and knitting in the london marathon and generally looking very silly and he announced me as the winner.

Oh my!

I actually managed to get up on the stage without falling over in my high heels and then it's all a blur really. There was a bit of banter and some photos and then some celebrating.

This morning I am a bit muzzy-headed so my run will have to wait until later.

Thank you so much to whoever it was who nominated me.

Some more crochet

Here's part of the second Herati square, just blocked and waiting for the next section. It's going to be massive.

I shall have to do a separate post with the photos from my runs as I have got loads to show.

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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.