In his own inimitable style, Peter arrived for his talk at Saxmundham library a-top his penny farthing bike. His arrival was captured by Charmian Berry (no relation, there's clearly just a proliferation of Berrys in Suffolk) and Charmain also snapped Peter's talk at various points.
This proved a highly successful morning. Peter explained what living well with dementia meant for him and his family and he also managed to keep the talk light-hearted and witty. Our banner was duly admired in all its glory (photos also by Charmian) and I found the courage to read a couple of pages of "Slow Puncture" to the audience.
On a more serious note, the talk prompted one attendee to ask questions about his fears of his own potential diagnosis and to ask, too, if we could repeat this talk for family members as he thought they would benefit greatly from hearing Peter's inspirational words. Peter and Teresa were able to assuage some of his concerns and to give him advice and support. In particular, Peter stressed to him the benefits of living well, to focus on the can do's, not the can't do's and to tell family and friends of the diagnosis, rather than to keep it a secret.
The generosity of those attending was over-whelming. As well as selling copies of "Slow Puncture", we received £50 for Peter's chosen charity, Alzheimersresearchuk.org. We also had a strange request from another attendee, Marie Smith: in exchange for Peter teaching her how ride a penny farthing, she would donate to the charity. It seems the good old British barter system is still going strong in Suffolk. Watch this space for some potentially hilarious pictures of Marie and Peter enacting a 1928 classic: The Penny Farthing Bike Race (1928) | British Pathé - YouTube (scroll 15 seconds through those pesky adverts!)
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