Buy a person with dementia a coffee

I read in the local press the Healthy Ageing Café in Southwark, a place for people with dementia and their carers, will close. Why? I have 3 coffee shops (one in Bermondsey Street), and I know people want to feel part of something, and how communities spring up around cafés. Why is this community being disowned?

The local press reported that the Healthy Ageing Café in Lambeth is going to close too, but this is no longer true. The people there want to hold on to their own, and I completely understand why they do. Big charities seem to have lost touch with the people they are supposed to be there for, and a small charity is helping them apply for the funds they need to go independent.

I want to back these people up: I want to help make sure they can carry on going to their Café while the funding is being sorted out, and I will employ all the Café's staff during the month of April so that they can continue going to work. I have faith in those of us who still want the best for our old ones, and for these people with dementia who have been abandoned, and I trust that a permanent solution will be found soon.

I have no spare cash just now. So I am going to hold a collection, from now until the end of April, to pay their wages when they become due. Should I not collect enough, I will come up with the rest.

This fundraising campaign is called "re:Generation", and you'll find collection boxes in my thee Cafés, as from Sunday. The addresses are on my
websit (www.streetcoffee.co.uk). Suggested donation: the price of a latte once or more times a week!

Hats off to you,I will be making a donation or two.

Count on me! This is a great example of community spirit.

Good on you! Will definitely donate! Also, if you'd like, I'd happily have a collection box in the pub? (Simon the Tanner)

Great idea. I'd not heard of the Healthy Ageing cafe and will definitely be along to support the fundraising. I have mobility problems and going out to a cafe is an important part of my day to keep me from going spare staring at the four walls of my flat. I can't imagine how much worse it is for someone with dementia.

Not hats off, it's common sense. Simon the Tanner, I'll be OK with doing the wages. May be you can do lunches, or something else. I'll find out what they need and we could put our head together to fundraise.

One of the wonderful things is how much the users enjoy singing and dancing. It seems to be the last thing you forget. (And Adrian should have said his other cafés are in Brick Lane and Goswell Rd.)

This is a great idea and one that I'll be supporting. To often established charities seem to forget smaller enabling projects they should be supporting and the benefits that this brings to the community.

The Healthy Ageing Café closed because the Alzheimer's Society wanted to replace that (free) service with a cut-down, simplified, service which they were going to charge for. So the users and staff decided to go it alone.

We could get some fundraising events going,a footie match (for the boys)newbies v locals in Victorian attire (or something)Might just cement a community too.