All Home Care Matters was honored to welcome two remarkable guests, Peter Berry & Deb Blunt. They are cyclists, authors, and dementia advocates helping to raise awareness for dementia.
Peter was diagnosed with early onset dementia eight years ago, when he was 50. Before his diagnosis, Peter ran a successful timber business. After a period of depression following his diagnosis, Peter made the decision to live well with the condition. He is very keen to help others understand his experience, both of the condition and the diagnosis process. When he’s not delivering presentations, Peter spends his days cycling around the Suffolk countryside, being the embodiment of his own doctrine of living well with dementia.
Deb:
Deb is a retired social worker. She took early Retirement and moved from London to Suffolk five years ago. The friendship with Peter has helped Deb to fulfil one of her main life ambitions: to be a published author. But this friendship has also taught Deb has to re-evaluate her own life and to try to live in the moment and to appreciate the joys that life has to offer.
Peter and Deb have written two books: “Slow Puncture, Living Well with Dementia” and “Walk with Me: Musings Through the Dementia Fog”.
About "Slow Puncture, Living Well with Dementia":
This is an account of a year in the life of Peter Berry, an ordinary man living in a sleepy Suffolk village. Happily married and running a successful business, Peter’s life changes when, at the age of fifty, he is given a terminal diagnosis of early onset dementia.
Since that day, he has learned to live with his very own dementia monster. From depression and suicide attempts through to his determination to confront his dementia, Peter has embarked on a series of challenges to show that life isn’t over with dementia, it’s just a little different. Peter has now raised thousands of pounds for dementia charities, cycling hundreds of miles in his quest to show that life is always worth living.
When Peter meets Deb, recently retired, they embark on regular cycle rides and, as their friendship grows, Deb is able to look at her own life through the lens of Peter’s dementia. In Slow Puncture, Peter tells the world what it is really like to live with a terminal condition and Deb learns to enjoy each day more fully. With a foreword by best-selling author Wendy Mitchell, author of Somebody I Used to Know, this is an inspirational look at both living in the present and coping with dementia.
About "Walk with Me: Musings through the Dementia Fog":
This is a compilation of the thoughts and poetry of Peter Berry, diagnosed with early onset dementia, aged 50. Peter’s dementia impacts his short term memory severely and this means that, as soon as the words leave his mouth, they are gone for him. Peter’s friend, Deb, has spent the last two years jotting his words down and now these are captured in this book. Illustrated with stunning photographs of Suffolk by local photographer, Daniel Ruffles, the book also takes a look back over the past year and reflects on the events since the publication of their first book, “Slow Puncture.”
#dementia #alzheimers #authors
Connect with Peter & Deb:
Official Website:
https://peterberrylwa.wixsite.com/peterberry
Purchase Books:
https://peterberrylwa.wixsite.com/peterberry/the-book
SoundStripe:
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