My volunteering journey began many years ago in the West Midlands. My mother had been diagnosed with dementia and I felt her transition into Elderly Mental Infirm (EMI) care, which is specialist care for people with advanced dementia, was not as smooth as it should have been. I became part of the Birmingham and Sandwell CCG, chairing their end-of-life group. As time progressed, I lost both parents to dementia. Mother’s illness lasted 12 years, my father only months as he contracted pneumonia.
My wife’s parents also passed away at
roughly the same time, her father with cancer and
her mom with dementia.
Moving to Rugby 11 years ago, I joined the
Coventry and Warwickshire CCG as a volunteer.
When the Integrated Care Board was formed,
I retained my interest in dementia and now sit on the four Patient Led Assessment of the Care Environment (PLACE) groups and am a member of the Partnership Board which takes into account all aspects of palliative care.
I became a Patient Partner at UHCW some years ago and joined the Patient and Public Research Advisory Group (PPRAG) about two years ago, recently becoming a Research Champion allowing me to raise awareness of research happening at UHCW.
Research holds a great interest for me, without it society would never move forward especially in the area of health and social care. It is thanks to research that survival rate for some diseases is higher compared to those rates many years ago.