WATCH: £45k to extend and expand Northumberland dementia project

The Alnwick Garden’s Blooming Well dementia care programme has been given a £45,000 donation by Gateshead-based Primula Cheese.

Primula Cheese is wholly owned by the Kavli Trust, a charitable trust which donates profits to various causes, supporting research, humanitarian and cultural projects in the UK and worldwide.

Currently, Blooming Well welcomes a group of 15 people with dementia as well as their carers to sessions at the Garden once a week where they take part in gardening and other wellbeing activities.

The donation will enable the sessions to take place five times a week for different groups of people and support the project for the next three years – meaning up to 150 people with dementia and family carers could benefit from the initiative each week.

Alnwick Garden director, Mark Brassell, welcomed Paul Lewney, managing director of Primula UK, to the Blooming Well session on Monday.

Mr Brassell said that they were ‘massively grateful’ for the support.

“It’s great to partner with Kavli; it’s not often you get a corporate partner which is a trust,” he added.

“We are both organisations which have a strong community-outreach agenda.

“A lot of funding goes to medical research which is fantastic, but there’s still people living with dementia.

“This supports people suffering from dementia and their families – it’s a great vibe here because gardening is very therapeutic.”

Mr Lewney said: “Everything we do, we try to make a difference.

“There are many worthy charities in the world, but we try to make a difference to the local community and that’s the case here.

“They are looking after people in the community with the support they can give them through the Alnwick Garden.”