Ms Irene Mackay

Raising Children's Awareness of Dementia was the fascinating theme at the Rotary Club of South Queensferry on Thursday 14th April. Speaker Irene Mackay, who previously worked for Alzheimer Scotland and herself remembers feelings of pain and bewilderment when her own mother was diagnosed with dementia, identified the need to provide an easily understood explanation for very young children experiencing often frightening changes in a family member. Irene explained: 'I realised the importance of making even very young children aware of why a loved-one is behaving differently.' She wrote a book The Forgetful Elephant to explain dementia and suggest ways to maintain a loving relationship with a sufferer. Getting to Know You is an acivity booklet in which children can interact with their elders and record events from their lives which may prove useful as memory fades. Irene's publications are backed up by a range of support material such as memory helper packs and Forgetful Elephant hand puppets to get across the message of dementia in a simple and non-frightening way. Remarkably, Irene has no official funding. She publishes and distributes her material herself. Her reception by the teaching profession also varies widely, many schools delighted to have her talk to the children, others completely unreceptive. In her closing remarks, President Kate Gibb said that Irene Mackay's talk had been inspirational and would serve to promote a wider understanding of dementia. If young children learned about the condition they were sure to tell their parents.

To find out more about the resources available, visit www.irenemackay.com To arrange a session or talk, email: enquiries@irenemackay.com

POLIO FREE WORLD IN SIGHT AS LARGEST VACCINE

ROLLOUT IN HISTORY KICKS OFF.

This week marked the beginning of the largest and fastest introduction of a vaccine into routine immunisation programmes in history. 155 countries and territories around the world will replace their current polio vaccines with a new vaccine which protects against the remaining two wild polio strains. The switch is possible because type 2 wild polio has already been eradicated.  The new vaccine will provide better protection for vulnerable children against the remaining type 1 and type 3 strains.

The world is closer than ever to eradication of polio with only ten cases of wild polio to date. (8 in Pakistan and 2 in Afghanistan as of 14th April 2016.) The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is spearheaded by national governments, the World Health Organisation, Rotary, CDC and UNICEF and supported by key partners such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Since 1988 the incidence of polio has been reduced by more than 99.9%. Michael K. McGovern, Chair of Rotary International's PolioPlus Committee said: 'This switch is an important step, but we must maintain our support until every last child is safe from this disease.'