A SCOTTISH actress whose mother suffers from dementia is urging people to undertake a "Memory Walk" and help raise money to support those with the condition.
Barbara Rafferty, who starred as Mrs Garrigan in the film The Last King of Scotland, announced she would be joining the new series of walks which have been launched by charity Alzheimer Scotland.
Memory Walks are taking place across the country this autumn and will culminate in an event at Glasgow's Kelvingrove Park on Sunday October 4.
Ms Rafferty said: “I’m delighted to be given the chance take part in such a positive and uplifting event to help support dementia awareness.
"It was a shock to everyone when Mum was diagnosed with dementia. It’s been a challenging journey and I hope that in the future nobody has to face dementia alone."
The actress, who is also known for playing Ella Cotter in Rab C Nesbitt, said her mother Elizabeth remains physically fit despite being diagnosed with dementia 12 years ago.
Ms Rafferty said: "She doesn't really speak but every now and again she will have amazing moments of clarity. You think briefly that she is coming back, but then the mist comes down again.
"She still looks lovely and she still hums tunes. She used to know a lot of songs."
She described her mother as content, adding: "I still know that I can give her a cuddle, can still stroke her face when I visit her in her care home, and I can make her laugh as well."
More than 90,000 people in Scotland suffer from dementia and the number is set to double as the elderly population grows.
Previous Memory Walks have raised more than £100,000 for Alzheimer Scotland services.
Ms Rafferty said: “Many carers looking after relatives can find it a difficult and lonely situation. My father David cared for my mother for many years, and he certainly found Alzheimer Scotland very helpful.”
Anna Devine, director of fundraising, marketing and communications at Alzheimer Scotland, said the money raised from the walks would help fund their freephone helpline, their dementia advisors and nurses, their support groups and research.
For more details visit www.MemoryWalksScotland.org.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here