DementiaUK | Our Chosen Charity of the Year

Why We Chose Dementia UK For 2026

Every year we pick one cause to put real effort behind — not a passing mention, but genuine, sustained fundraising, awareness, and support. This year, that cause is Dementia UK.

It wasn't a difficult decision. Dementia is the condition we encounter more than any other in our work across Whitchurch, Wem, Prees, Whixall, and the surrounding villages of North Shropshire. Our leadership brings over 25 years of specialist dementia nursing experience, and it shapes almost everything about how we train our carers, how we write our care plans, and how we support the families who trust us with someone they love.

Dementia UK funds Admiral Nurses — specialist dementia nurses who do something that no other part of the health and social care system quite does. They don't treat the person with dementia directly. They support the people around them: the exhausted spouse, the adult child managing from three hours away, the family who has no idea what comes next and nobody clinical to actually ask. We see, in our daily work, exactly the gap that Admiral Nurses exist to fill — and we know how much difference they make when they're there, and how hard things can be when they're not.

Supporting Dementia UK as our Charity of the Year is our way of putting our energy where our expertise already lives.

What Admiral Nurses Actually Do

An Admiral Nurse is a registered nurse with specialist training in dementia, employed to work specifically with family carers rather than with the person diagnosed. They help families understand what's happening and what's likely to happen next. They support the hardest conversations — about safety, about capacity, about when home is no longer enough. They provide the kind of sustained, knowledgeable, one-to-one relationship that a GP appointment or a memory clinic visit, however good, simply doesn't have the time to offer.

Locally, Shropshire Admiral Nurses provide exactly this service to family carers of people registered with a Shropshire GP, accessed via GP or professional referral. Nationally, Dementia UK also runs a free Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline — 0800 888 6678 — staffed by qualified Admiral Nurses, available seven days a week to anyone affected by dementia, whether or not a local Admiral Nurse service is already involved.

We refer families to both of these regularly. They are among the most valuable resources that exist for the people we support.

What We've Done So Far

In June 2026, we hosted a Charity Bingo Night at the Archibald Worthington Club in Whitchurch, in aid of Dementia UK. Thirty-one local businesses donated prizes, the room was full, and the evening raised a genuinely meaningful sum toward funding Admiral Nurse services — a proper community effort, not just a company writing a cheque. You can read the full story of that night, including our thanks to every business that supported it, on our blog.

That was the beginning, not the whole of it. Over the coming months we'll be:

Continuing to fundraise. We're planning further events across the year — further details will be published on this page and on our blog as they're confirmed.

Raising awareness through our content & training. Our Alzheimer's Disease Care and Dementia Care and Support pages, our published example dementia care plan, and a growing number of blog posts are all part of the same effort — making sure that families in North Shropshire understand dementia properly, know what support exists, and don't feel as alone as so many carers tell us they did before finding help.

Displaying our support publicly. You'll see DementiaUK and our Charity of the Year status across our office, and our printed materials throughout the year.

Encouraging our own community to give. If you'd like to support Dementia UK directly, or get involved in anything we're planning, we'd love to hear from you — whether that's a donation, a raffle prize for a future event, or simply spreading the word.

Why This Matters to Families We Work With

If you are currently caring for someone with dementia — whether they're a client of ours or not — please know that Dementia UK's support is available to you regardless of who provides your relative's care.

The Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline is free, confidential, and staffed by people who understand dementia at a level that most of us, however experienced, don't. If you are exhausted, frightened, or simply unsure what to do next, that call is worth making.

Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline: 0800 888 6678 (seven days a week) Dementia UK: dementiauk.org

How You Can Get Involved

Donate directly to Dementia UK via dementiauk.org — every contribution funds Admiral Nurse services directly.

Come to our next event. Follow our blog and social media for details of upcoming fundraising activity.

Talk to us. If you're a local business who'd like to support a future event, or you simply want to know more about what we're doing this year, call us or drop us an email.

📞 01948 411222 ✉️ mail@nshomecare.co.uk

North Shropshire Homecare The Coach House, 15/17 Green End, Whitchurch, SY13 1AD

Proud to support Dementia UK as our Charity of the Year. CQC Rated Good. Independently Owned. Locally Staffed. Serving North Shropshire since 2011.