Change of site name!

Some of you who read my posts may have notices that I have changed the name of my page. It used to be ‘Before I Forget’, and I realised that there are so many pages with that name which may be more important than mine so thought of a new name.

My URL is http://www.handbagwarrior.com, the domain which I bought a year or so ago, and I identify with the name handbagwarrior in my passion for helping to educate my local town about living with Dementia. I sometime feel like a warrior trying to support my local community to stop being ashamed of the diagnosis and to start looking at how people can live well. So, for me the most natural name for my site is Handbagwarrior: Dementia and me. It has been a long struggle for me to identify who I am now. No matter how others see me, it is how I feel about myself that I needed to change. For a long time I have felt lost as me, when you leave work because of illness you lose your identity initially and when your illness is Dementia it felt like all that I had been disappeared then.

Today I am firmly ensconced in my new community. I am a handbagwarrior in bringing about change in how dementia is seen within the community, and the provision for younger people and those with early diagnosis. I work hard networking and trying to change perceptions. I have set up a peer support group ‘Lets Meet Up, peer support group‘, and am formalising the constitution for the umbrella group of ‘Lets Meet Up’. So under this umbrella is also Lets meet up Art and Social Group. Constituting the group will enable us to raise our own funds with the sale of things that the Art Group can produce. My next challenge is to find a permanent home for the group to meet in every week. My dream would be to have an empty shop to open up a Community Hub in. Somewhere that groups such as ours can meet on a regular basis, a place that can house information about all the groups and charities that are available in the area. Lots of peer support groups look for somewhere to meet, so I don’t think it would be hard to fill the place. I have already made some noise regarding this and fingers crossed this will happen within the next year. Of course its not just me doing this, I do have a side-kick, Lynn B. She is a tireless whirlwind! and we bounce off each other as we attend meetings, appointments and network together to achieve what we need. We are the working group of Dementia Friendly Seaham so there is a cross over in our endeavours.

So, my dementia is very slow progressing and during this time I have a need to get done as much as I can within my community for other like myself.

So, that is why I have changed the name. 😁

Gill x