World Rocks Against Dementia #WRAD 2016/17

In our continuing series for World Alzheimer's Month 2016, today for a #RememberMe story, we are highlighting the work of one of our members Norrms McNamara from Torbay in the UK.

Thanks Norrms for generously sharing writing this story for us to share here, and for the work you do. We can and will change the world, one small action or step at a time, each in our own unique ways, and by collectively working together and supporting each others efforts.

This is Norrms story on his World Rocks Against Dementia campaign...

"Hello my name is Norrms Mc Namara and eight years ago aged just 50 I was diagnosed with dementia. I have since gone on to create the Global Purple Angel Dementia campaign which is now established in over 45 + countries approx. and has over 550 Global purple Angel dementia ambassadors, please feel free to join us.

Did you know? Something very special happened on March 17^th of this year?? It will also be happening on March 18^th next year 2017 as well and this is where we need your help please.

This year, on March 17^{th, was} the very first WRAD “World Rocks against Dementia “and for the first time in history 14 + countries around the world came together through the power of music to STAND UP and stand TOGERTHER in the face of this disease.

The idea to Rock against Dementia was not my idea but came from a great friend of mine Wayne Mesker in the USA, all I did was to ask him if we could make his idea a worldwide event and put the word WORLD in front of it which he thankfully agreed to. Then with his connections and mine we worked together to make this happen; this year and it was a HUGE Success.

A huge amount of work lay ahead in front of all of us and with the help of some very good friends we got it off the ground, little did we know then how big it would become. Before we knew is we were being contacted by organisations around the world and also small towns, villages and cities across the globe. The beauty of this is, it’s not about “Rock music “Per say” but about ANY TYPE of music from Classical to Rock, and from Country and western to Blues/R+B and it doesn’t matter one IOTA if it’s a huge hall lasting all day or a few people getting together around a CD player in your own front room, the point is we ALL COME TOGETHER on this day to remember all those touched by this disease. All we ask you to do is Contact us on Facebook...

For WRAD 2017 the incredibly hard working Kirsty Anne Johnstone is taking the lead and with our support we are hoping this will be even bigger and better hopefully doubling the amount of places involved; we also have the FULL backing from Marc Wortman and Alzheimer’s disease International so please please join us in 2017 by making this the BIGGEST DEMENTIA Awareness raising event the world has ever seen.

The next WRAD is March 18th, 2017

Below is a list of all counties etc involved in this year’s event and also a gallery of some wonderful pictures from around the globe.

Best wishes, Norrms Mc Namara

WRAD 2016:

• Alzheimers Greece, Thessalonike.
• Alzheimers Turkey
• Nigeria - Kikelomo
• India (Sailesh Mishrea - Silver Innings)
• Wales: Pendine Park, Wrexham, N. Wales (Chris, Anita and Ann Farr)
• Ireland - Heather Gray-Gately
• Scotland, Aberdeen, (John Law)
• Senior Living L'Amore, Beijing CHINA(Robert Arsenault)
• Purple Cities Alliance, Knoxville. USA (Kathy Broggy)
• Huntersville, N. Carolina USA (Huntersville CAREs)
• Torbay, Devon, UK (Norrm of course)
• Crewe UK (Ian Hatton)
• Cheshire UK
• Loughborough UK (Ruth Coward)
• Burnham LeCrouch, UK, Alex Babb
• Essex UK (Dengle D-Caf)
• Manchester, UK (Alessandra)
• Bedfordshire UK (Lorraine Womack)
• York, UK (Helen Moyniham)
• Manchester UK (Bridie Breen)Irish World Heritage Centre
• Shepperton, Middx, UK (Jean Saunders)
• Scarborough UK
• Rotherham, Barnsley or Doncaster (not sure exactly where!)UK (Graham Wilmot)
• South Africa (Hayley Maisch - Elzabe Ballan)
• Gold Coast, Queensland, AUSTRALIA (Patricia Mitchell)
• Queensland, AUSTRALIA (Debbie Moffat)
• Nepal (Ajay Chhetri Alz Nepal)
• Canada
• New Zealand

15 countries confirmed, 29 cities"

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