News release
12 October 2020
Merseyflow donates £1,000 to Runcorn care home appeal after inspiration from local #milesformum campaigner
Merseyflow is donating £1,000 to support residents’ activities at Simonsfield Dementia and Residential Care Home in Runcorn.
The donation has been inspired by Runcorn resident Steve Bebbington, whose mum is a resident at the specialist care home on Boston Avenue.
Steve started off the summer with a plan to run 100 miles and raise £100 to support the home and the Alzheimer’s Society. Steve’s wife Claire then came up with the #milesformum campaign name and hashtag and since then the response has been incredible.
Two months and 6,500 miles later after a lot of help from around 70 friends and members of the local community, Steve has now raised a total of £5,500 which is being split between Simonsfield and the national Alzheimer’s Society.
Simonsfield Care Home will be putting the money towards a specialist Tovertafel. It has been raising funds to buy this specialist bit of kit for the past year but has been severely hampered by the pandemic which has put a halt to most fund-raising activity, so still needs an additional £3,700 to reach its target.
Anyone who wants to help raise funds for the Simonsfield Care Home can do so by emailing enquiries at Enquiries@hillcare.net
Tovertafel is a little box that can be mounted on the ceiling above a dining room table Inside the box is a high-quality projector, infrared sensors, speaker, and processor that work together to project the games onto the table.
Because the colourful objects respond to hand and arm movements, residents get to interact and play with the light itself, which is incredibly beneficial for people with dementia.
Steve’s mum Jennie, who has dementia, has only been a resident at Simonsfield for a few months, having previously lived in the same house for 40 years. Since arriving at the start of 2020, she has made new friends and has a new lease of life.
However, like other relatives of the residents at Simonsfield and other care homes, Steve has not been able to go and see his mum since March, except for a few outside visits over the summer months.
Steve Bebbington said: “I never imagined for a second that we would have managed to raise over £5,500 and it’s been incredible. The donation from merseyflow will make a huge difference. The team at Simonsfield are doing an incredible job looking after my mum and I just wanted to help out, but they still need more funds to buy their Tovertafel so I’d urge anyone looking for a good fund-raising cause to help them out.
Debbie Smith, Manager at Simonsfield Care Home, said: “I’d like to say a huge thanks to Steve for everything he has done and to the team at merseyflow for this donation. We’re facing a triple whammy which makes life very challenging for our residents. Covid-19 rules mean they can’t see and hug relatives, and we’re limited in what activities we can do with them for the same reason. On top of that, fund-raising is incredibly difficult just now as most of the things we would normally do to raise money are just impossible.
Helen Williams, Marketing Manager at merseyflow, said: “When we heard about what Steve was doing to help support Simonsfield and the Alzheimer’s Society we wanted to help and the great thing is that we know that our donation is going directly to the home here to help the team provide the best possible support to their residents who are all local people.”