About Me - the writer of this website.

How this website came to be.

Recently I was travelling by train on a journey from Brighton back to my home in Cardiff. My seat was at one of those tables. A lady sat next to me and after a few stops another lady came and sat opposite.

As many women do, we got into conversation. Eventually the lady opposite told us her husband was in residential care.

"My dear," I remember saying, "I’m so sorry to hear that. What is the matter with him?"

"He’s got Parkinson’s."

"Well," I said, "That’s extraordinary. It so happens that my husband is now in hospital but he also spent some time in residential care."

"What a coincidence. Of all the people on this busy train! What’s his trouble?"

"He’s got something called Vascular Dementia," I said.

"That’s what my husband’s got! But I never say that because nobody knows what I’m talking about."

"I tell people Jack’s got Alzheimer’s for the very same reason."

I could see the lady opposite me looking relieved. "How old was your husband when you noticed something was wrong?" she asked.

"It must have been when he was about sixty-three when I first started noticing changes in him."

"My husband was diagnosed when he was fifty-eight."

Needless to say we talked and talked. We swapped many stories, some funny, some sad. Suddenly her eyes filled with tears and she reached across the table to clutch my hand.

"In all this time," she said, "You are absolutely the only person I’ve ever talked to who understands exactly what I’ve been through, exactly what I mean."

"What! Don’t you have a support group in your area? Somewhere you can go to let off steam and get some help?"

"There’s nothing," she said. "The only person I’ve ever really spoken to outside my family is the social worker. Really, you are the only one."

There you have it. I’ve thought of all the help I’ve received, thought of how I’d rung in a panic over something or another, thought of all the tears and all the laughter we had exchanged over tea and biscuits at the group meetings, thought of all the friendship and kindness I continue to receive, thought of all the people up and down the country who could be in a situation similar to that lady.

Because of that here I am, putting together a web site. I thought that that through the internet, men and women who are in the same boat could have an opportunity to talk to each other.