Immanuel and St Andrew Primary School – Class 4 – 28 January 2013

The search for Alzheimer Champions was never so rewarding, as when the Mayoral Team became aware of the achievements of the children of Class 4 at Immanuel and St Andrew Primary School Streatham in aid of the Mayor’s Charity.  Dementia, or severer and prolonged memory loss is often seen as age related and as Champions in understanding the need for constant attention, this determined group of young people set about devising highly creative ways of raising money in supporting the research and caring for those who continue to suffer from this debilitating disorder.

At a recent Monday morning assembly Head Teacher Mr Robinson kindly gave the Mayor an opportunity to the speak to the whole school and at the end he was quite taken aback when Clover and Anton from Class 4 came forward to present him with a cheque for £551.57.  It was indeed a most generous response to something that had originally started out as “The Biggest Picnic Ever” in an attempt to raise the profile of awareness for young people in Lambeth schools and therefore our special thanks to their class teacher MsTaiwo Labinjo, parents, governors and friends who encouraged and organised the collections.

The tragedy of dementia is a disorder that usually becomes the responsibility of those left to care and often younger members of the family are involved but not fully aware as to why such a thing might have happened and what is now being done to reduce the suffering and to seek a cure through extensive research.  This work carried out by Class 4 and their greater understanding of dementia can now be shared with their peers so that as our Alzheimer Champions they can begin the journey of research enquiry at a very early age and who knows; what started at Immanuel and St Andrew might well be continued at degree level, for a young person who might then achieve an extraordinary breakthrough in explaining through their research a possible cure or serious containment for the cruelty of dementia and the years of suffering endured by those diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s Disease.