A TEAM of documentarians from Ruthin which uses technology to help people with dementia to preserve their life’s memories has launched a campaign to provide its service across the UK.
Book of You (BY), a not-for-profit social enterprise based in Ruthin, goes beyond the traditional methods of recording happy times with loved ones through writing and photographs by using apps, voice recordings and videos to create a digital multimedia 'book' that can be kept for future generations. The service focuses on people with dementia, which affects 225,000 in the UK every year.
BY, which has worked in care homes, hospitals and with families across north Wales, was started by wife and husband Kathy, a former civil service worker and music radio host, and Tom Barham, formerly of North Wales Police and who has led social enterprise leadership programmes at Bangor University.
Mrs Barham, who moved to Ruthin 22 years ago, said: “The idea of the service is that adults get to speak to their parents who have dementia and save their memories before its too late.
“The social enterprise is not-for-profit; what is raised is invested into the business.
“We’ve heard people say, ‘I wish I had this when my mother was alive’.
“There has been an overwhelming response from the people who take part saying it has helped them massively.
“There was one woman who had depression and wanted to get involved but couldn’t. She made the step and within six weeks had 85 pages of memories.
“Once people do it they think it’s wonderful.”
BY won the ‘Tech for Good’ category of the Social Business Wales Awards last year and consequently attended the prestigious Social Enterprise UK in London.
It has now launched a £15,000 fundraiser to enhance and acquire more resources to provide its service across the UK.
Mrs Barham said: “There are no other services like this in the UK, we are the only one to use multimedia.
“The funding would allow us to build improve our app, for example by installing animations and pop-ups, making it more engaging.
“And we do not want to be limited only to the local area.
“It is about bringing people together while they still can and creating a memorial for families of people that suffer from dementia.”
To find out more about Book of You and donate, visit www.bookofyou.co.uk
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