Hello

My name is Bethan and I want to ask you a 2 questions ...

1) Are you living with dementia or a carer of someone living with dementia who would love to get out and have a run/jog/walk on a Saturday morning but cannot because of a variety of reasons associated with the fact you have difficulties with your memory/dementia?

2) Have you ever heard of Parkrun?

Here is some interesting factual information about Parkrun ...

Parkrun is the name given to a collection of five-kilometre running events that take place every Saturday morning in fourteen countries across five continents. Events are run by volunteers, and participation is free of charge.

Runners are required to register online in advance for a unique athlete number and to print their own identification barcode for use when taking part. Runners' results in each event are processed and uploaded online after the run by volunteers. Each registered runner has an individual page cataloguing the details of each event in which they have participated.

Junior Parkrun (styled as junior parkrun) is a spin-off event which provides a 2 km run for children aged 4–14 weekly on a Sunday morning.

Founded by the Potchefstroom High School for Boys educated Paul Sinton- Hewitt in 2004, the idea of Parkrun grew from the initial Bushy Parkrun event (originally called Bushy Park Time Trial) into a small collection of events called the UK Time Trials and then into Parkrun (2010). Events now take place every week in , , , , , , , the , , the ,[4] the United States, and

Dementia Champion I am one of 3 recently appointed Dementia Champions within Parkrun UK and our task is to ensure that we make Parkrun more welcoming to those living with dementia and their carers. This is obviously going to differ from venue to venue but the principles should be consistent throughout the organisation and throughout the world.

I would love to hear from you if you have any ideas about how we can achieve this goal.

Have you been involved in anything similar and do you have any tips for us?

Ae you living with dementia or a carer for someone living with dementia and are already enjoying the benefits of Parkrun?? If so what differences have been made to your ability to access your local Parkrun and what makes it so special?

Have you had any negative experiences that you would be willing to share with us so that we can ensure this does not happen again???

Please just get in touch and share your experiences with me ... I am passionate about this area and want to really be able to make a difference to people's ability and access to a wonderful family of runners by ensuring Parkrun is suitable and accessible to all.

Many thanks in advance for any help you can provide

I really do hope you can take a bit of time to respond so that the information I gather really does make a difference and allow people to access a safe sporting community which recognises the impact living with dementia has on people but allows them to enjoy a range of physical activity and enables them to access a new form of support

Thank you

Bethan Wyn Roberts [email protected]