"Dementia crept up behind me in its carpet slippers & grabbed me round the waist..."

As Peter often says, he builds castles from the rubble of his dementia and this support group, in its embryonic stages perhaps, is further evidence of his determination to build a grand castle.

Today was the second meeting of the Saxmundham dementia support group and it was an opportunity for Peter and Teresa to share their story, from diagnosis and the emotional trauma around that, their coping strategies and their humour right to the present time.

Liz, the library manager at Saxmundham library, has been an active advocate of getting the group up and running and huge thanks must go to her again. I know it can be hard work to build a new project but it feels as if momentum is growing.

One of the areas discussed was how to address the issue of inclusivity: it was clear that some people who wanted to be at this group were not able to be so, either because of the weather (out of our control!) or because of accessibility (within our control). We do live in rural Suffolk where buses are something of a rarity and so we need to ensure that we assist people to get to Saxmundham. As a result, we are investigating local coaches, community transport or any other ideas which people might come up with (or, as Churchill would have said, "up with which people might come"?)

Peter always has the capacity to surprise me when he delivers these presentations and the headline quote is a another example of that. His dementia really did seem to come from nowhere, with stealth, shuffling silently, behind him. But he puts it so much better than I do. Perhaps he should seek a new career as a writer...