Sat nan! Dementia sufferer Anne gets tracking device to stop her getting lost

A DEMENTIA-suffering great gran has been fitted with a tracking device dubbed a “sat nan” because she gets lost so often while out walking.

Anne Grimshaw, 78, has become one of the first people in the UK to be equipped with the technology so her family can find her when she gets lost.

The device – known as “Buddi” – is attached to Anne’s keys and shows her last known position on an online map daughter Joanne has access to.

Anne disappears up to FIVE TIMES A DAY and has been known to walk between 150 and 200 miles a week.

She once unwittingly found herself on the hard shoulder of the motorway and a police search helicopter has also been needed to track her down.

Her dementia means that when she wanders off from her bungalow in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, she forgets where she has been and her worried family cannot find her.

But thanks to the little black box – which updates Anne’s location every five minutes – the retired embroiderer has been saved from spending the rest of her life in a care home.

Joanne said: “The police once brought her home when she was found on the hard shoulder of the A627.

“She doesn’t think there is anything wrong but she gets completely lost and doesn’t have the insight to turn around and walk back the way she came.”

In March last year Anne’s walking was at its peak and housewife Joanne was constantly checking on her.

“One day she went missing for 12 hours and caused a massive police search. We live near the moors and I was sick with worry.

“I just kept crying, I thought the worst. She would even try and go out in the snow.”

Desperate, Joanne began researching ways to track her mother- and she was looking for a mobile phone with a tracking app when she came across the Buddi personal devices.

Anne was the first person in the area to be fitted with the device which is hidden in a case and placed on her house keys.

Joanne said: “I can’t fault Buddi. If she didn’t have this then she would not be in her own house but in a home there is no doubt about it.

Joanne can now quickly head out in her car to collect her mother.

She said: “When I see her I just wind the window down and say ‘Hi mum, come on get in’ and we go home. Sometimes she thinks that I am her mother and calls me Mum.

“Buddi has changed my life. I used to spend hours in the car looking for her and it has taken the stress away because I can log on and find her from my phone.”

And if Anne wanders out of a set radius Joanne will get a phone call from the Buddi team.

The incredible system also notifies Joanne if Buddi senses a fall or “man down alert” which triggers an alarm.