Budleigh Past and Present

      Above: Greg O'Brien opens the door to his Brewster office, where he is surrounded by memories from his long career.Cape Cod Times/Ron Schloerb It was not so long ago that Budleigh Salterton learnt of plans to make Fairlynch a dementia-friendly museum. This followed an initiative by the town’s Medical Centre and home care provider Home Instead which aims to make people more aware of dementia as an illness. Most of us associate it with the elderly, but although dementia mainly affects older people , it is not a normal part of ageing. From our sister-town of Brewster in Cape Cod comes a sad reminder that dementia can strike anyone at any age. The following article by Cynthia McCormick appeared in the Cape Cod Times on 25 June. It is based on Brewster resident Greg O’Brien’s brave account of his battle with the illness. O'Brien, 63, a political communications strategist, is the former editor and publisher of the Cape Codder . He is writing ...

  Fairlynch Chairman Roger Sherriff writes: Budleigh Salterton is following in the footsteps of Torquay which was Devon ’s first dementia-friendly town.   Budleigh Medical Centre, in partnership with the well-established and highly respected independent home care provider Home Instead, are spearheading an initiative to make businesses in Budleigh dementia-aware. With one in four of us likely to get some form of dementia and with 880 sufferers in Exmouth and Budleigh alone it is a condition that we are all going to become more aware of.   As part of this initiative Home Instead’s Mark McGlade, pictured above, is giving presentations on what dementia is, how it affects both sufferers and their carers and how members of the public and businesses can best help those dementia sufferers we come into contact with. On 12   June Mark gave a presentation to a group of stewards and volunteers at the Museum. He gave a detailed background about the variou...