Teenager pens touching poem to raise plight

An Aberdeenshire teenager’s poem, highlighting the tribulations of a debilitating illness, will be shared across Scotland in the coming months.

Huntly pupil Isla-Jane Reid put pen to paper to chart the plight of people with dementia as she was named the 25,000th “dementia friend” by Alzheimer Scotland.

The 17-year-old, who harbours ambitions of becoming a nurse in the future, has written a poignant poem called “Who am I?” after witnessing and chronicling the effects of life-changing illnesses on families at close quarters.

The Dementia Friends campaign is the biggest initiative ever launched in Scotland with the aim of shining a light on and increasing understanding of the condition.

Alzheimer Scotland hopes to share Isla-Jane’s poem with medical surgeries across the country while it seeks to further expand its Friends community.

Dementia affects 90,000 people across Scotland, but that figure is expected to increase significantly during the next 20 years.

And doctors are determined to spread the word on how the public can best help those who suffer from dementia, and those nearest to them in their everyday lives.

The teenager, who works in a care home, said: “I think the Dementia Friends campaign is a fantastic idea.

“Everyone can join to help understand a little more about dementia and how you can support people in the community who are living with the condition.

“I decided to write a poem about dementia because close friends, who I cared about as if they were my own grandparents, lived with this terrible disease. So I wanted to help do something to help get more people talking about dementia.

“As well as being in school and studying dementia care at my local college in my own time, I also work in my local care home where I see the effects that dementia has on people every day.

“There needs to be more awareness about how to care for someone with dementia, but also how they feel inside.”

Dementia Friends programme manager Anne McWhinnie added: “I am so proud of everything that we have achieved in Scotland to support the implementation of Dementia Friends.

“This was brought about in the first place to strengthen the organisation’s vision and try to ensure that nobody faces dementia alone. I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone, including Isla, who have helped us to reach this milestone in such a small space of time. We know that we have a big journey ahead of us, but we are confident that we are on course to make big strides forward.”

Anyone can become a friend. Those interested can e-mail dementiafriends@alzscot.org

Isla-Jane Reid, centre, from Huntly, has written a poem about the tribulations of dementia