News

Ladies who lunch and remember Sporting Memories fondly

An important part of our work is to provide long-term benefits to our club members, but in this powerful example below from our former group at Hayston Golf Club, we’ve seen a legacy which has survived despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A true story to warm the heart!

One of our Community Club Co-ordinators in the West of Scotland, Jim Purvis, has been undertaking a series of presentations across East Dunbartonshire in an attempt to recover ground lost during Covid. He has been guest speaker at various Dementia Cafes, Support Groups and Organisations.

As with all Sporting Memories Clubs, no two are exactly the same, and at Hayston - the primary sporting focus was of course golf!

The weekly format for the sessions involved Jim, along with a volunteer, taking the members out on the practice green for a putting session in all weathers and throughout the year while carers (mainly wives ) remained in the clubhouse for tea/coffee/chat and they all joined in later for a final more traditional SM offering of quiz/reminiscence.

This was a great success. The guys seemed to enjoy the fresh air and exercise - along with the competitive element that was never far from the surface - and the women similarly seemed to get a great deal out of the mutual support and camaraderie that they derived from the informal "carers' group " that had been created almost inadvertently.

Very sadly within six months of the first lockdown a number of the members of the club had sadly passed away, with only two of the members alive by the end of 2020. For a number of reasons, restarting the group has proven impossible so far.

A welcome catch-up

During his travels promoting Sporting Memories, Jim was delighted to meet Rina Callander, one of the carers, and he was told that the ladies had kept in contact and indeed had begun to meet for lunch again at Hayston last year - on a monthly basis.

Sadly, Rina's husband had died but she was continuing to keep in touch with people she had met at various dementia groups. Jim recalled: “We had a great catch up and then later that night I had a message from one of the other Hayston ladies asking if I'd like to join them for lunch.”

Jim returned to Hayston last week to catch-up with the ladies during their lunch meeting and he was delighted to share wonderful memories from the group.

Despite the devastating impact of COVID-19, it is wonderful to see a legacy created from a once vibrant club and we are proud to have been in some small way the catalyst for this ladies lunch group.

Go Ladies! Your other halves would be so proud of you all.