Scottish Racing’s first Dementia Friends event taking place at Hamilton Park

As a follow-on from Scottish racing’s support of Dementia Awareness Week alongside the charity Alzheimer Scotland, a first ‘Dementia Friends’ event will take place at Hamilton Park on Wednesday 22nd August.

Richard Lyle MSP will be attending the training day as a supporter of the Alzheimer Scotland partnership. Mr Lyle sits on the Cross Party Group on Scottish Racing and Bloodstock Industries at which Racing Together’s Eleanor Boden provided an update on community activity in Scotland.

Scottish Racing has embraced the work of Alzheimer Scotland and has committed to stage Dementia Friends training courses at all its courses. The sessions are friendly and interactive and will enable racecourse staff to increase their understanding of dementia, so too those affected by dementia in the local community. The course identifies the small ways in which everyone can help.

There are estimated to be around 60,000 sufferers of dementia in Scotland and the work at Hamilton is the first step in a new partnership between the charity and Scottish racing.

“This is an exciting development in the partnership between Scottish Racing and Alzheimer Scotland and I hope racecourses in England see this as a blueprint for future collaborations on making racing venues as inclusive as possible,” said Eleanor Boden who works with all courses in Scotland to develop their community engagement.

Further activities are planned, including the charity’s ‘Memory Bus’ – a method of reconnecting people with past events – being present at racing events.