While resting her aching feet after a soggy 10km walk across the Humber Bridge – accounts assistant Jacqui Woodward is also celebrating raising vital funds for dementia research.
Jacqui was among the hundreds who took part in the recent Alzheimer’s Society Memory Walk, organised across the country to support and remember those affected by all forms of dementia.
Jacqui was joined on the walk by husband Alan and daughter Jodie, as she remembered her dad Ray Goodman, who passed away last November, aged 80 – after battling dementia for five years.
Despite it being an emotionally charged day, Jacqui braved the weather and to date has raised around £400 in sponsorship – including a £100 donation from her employer Linden Homes East Yorkshire.
Jacqui said: “The day was full of emotion, reading peoples’ messages pinned to their T shirts and hearing their stories. It was a great tribute to all the dementia sufferers, their carers and their families.
“I would like to thank everyone for their generous sponsorship so far.”
The past few months have been very difficult for Jacqui, her mum Pat and the rest of the family – but by joining hundreds of other people who also have the cause close to their heart, Jacqui feels she is able to do her bit to help raise awareness.
Jacqui poignantly recalls: “I will always remember the day my Mum told me that my Dad was putting his keys in the fridge and putting tins in the microwave. I laughed it off at first, thinking well who doesn’t do silly things like that? I am the world's worst.
“In fact there was nothing funny about it at all, especially when we was told he had dementia. But we still weren’t prepared for what this disease did or was going to do to him, in the five years he survived with the disease.”
After being cared for at home, the time came for Ray to go into a nursing home. Jacqui remembers: “He hated this so much that he escaped over a 6ft brick wall, quite a few times - making it very difficult for the staff at the home, to look after him. Because of this, he was unfortunately put in a more secure unit, which in my eyes, was a very long and sad ending.”
To read more of Jacqui’s story or to add your support, visit
www.justgiving.com/fundraising/jacqui-woodward3
Jacqui completes the Memory Walk with husband Alan – and before the event with daughter Jodie.
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For further press information please contact Cetti Long at Media Matters on 01733 371363 or email cetti@mediamatters-pr.co.uk
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