Help us save tea room and its valuable work Stop smoking to help ward off dementia
THE Hillingdon Autistic Care and Support Tea Room is located in The Rural Activities Garden Centre, West Drayton Road, Hillingdon
We are writing on behalf of all employees and patrons at the tea room to inform you of our distress, that due to the council’s withdrawal of funding, the facility will be closing at the end of March.
HACS has been running the tea room since 2014 and is a welcoming community hub not only for those with Autism and Learning Disabilities, but also the local community. Many customers come in everyday or multiple times a week because the atmosphere is unlike anything else and customers know they are helping others in the community. The Tea Room also puts on special events for example, Tea with Santa and Jubilee celebrations. The Tea Room is an educational facility for those with Autism and Learning Disabilities which gives them the time and opportunity to build confidence and self -esteem which other mainstream cafes cannot offer.
This is the only cafe of this type in the borough and it will be a huge loss for the disabled community. It is also a lifeline for many of their regular customers.
Boris Johnson has also visited the Tea Room and was impressed with the work they do.
Please help us save this valued facility by emailing your councillor to request their funding continue
Armelle Thomas and Kay Gilbey Hillingdon Autistic Care and Support
Tea Room
SMOKERS in London are being urged to give quitting a go ahead of No Smoking Day (March 8), as research shows those who smoke are more likely to develop dementia.
The annual awareness day encourages smokers to make a quit attempt and this year’s theme is ‘stopping smoking protects your brain health.’
According to Alzheimer’s Research UK, dementia is the most feared health condition for people over the age of 55 – more than any other life-threatening disease including cancer and diabetes.[1]
Yet YouGov data [2] commissioned by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) revealed that fewer than one in five (17%) of people in London who smoke know that smoking increases the risk of dementia, compared to 77% who know that smoking causes lung diseases or cancers.
Smoking raises the risk of developing dementia [3], particularly Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, as it harms the vascular system (heart and blood vessels) and the brain. [4]. Studies also suggest that quitting smoking reduces this risk substantially [5], and smoking has been identified as one of twelve risk factors that if eliminated entirely, could collectively prevent or delay up to 40% of dementia cases.[3]
However, data from Alzheimer’s Research UK show only a third of UK adults know there are things they can do to help reduce their risk of dementia [1], and stopping smoking is one of them.
Visit stopsmokinglondon.com/ todayistheday to find out where you can get free access to the latest quitting aids, apps, information, one-to-one advice, and local support.
Nicky Dawson Stop Smoking London and the London Tobacco Alliance