Tag Archives: alzheimers
Alzheimer’s Scotland are now training 2 more puppies
The ‘dementia dogs’ that get their owners out of bed, keep them active, and bring them their medication
- Ken Will, 79, and Maureen Benham, 69, have been given assistance dogs
- Say they have finally ‘got their lives back’ because they can socialise again
- Kaspa and Oscar are the first ‘dementia dogs’ in the country that listen to a set of alarms that tell them to carry out specific tasks
- Alzheimer’s Scotland are now training 2 more puppies to do the same job
- By Emma Innes
UPDATED: 19:30, 15 July 2013
|A Labrador and a golden retriever – named Kaspa and Oscar – have become the first dogs in the country to look after dementia sufferers.
The pair has been drafted in to help Ken Will, 79, and Maureen Benham, 69, who were both diagnosed with dementia three years ago.
As their conditions have deteriorated, their dependence on respective partners Glenys Will, 66, and Frank Benham, 74, has increased – until now.
A Labrador and a golden retriever – named Kaspa and Oscar (pictured with Maureen and Frank Benham) – have become the first dogs in the country to look after dementia sufferers
Cure for dementia will be found in 7 years says Jeremy Hunt
BRITISH scientists will find a cure for dementia in just seven years, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has declared.
Not only will this save lives, it will also save the NHS by slashing billions of pounds a year from the cost of caring for those with the condition.
Mr Hunt said: “Finding drugs that can halt or cure dementia may seem a distant prospect now but there are drugs companies that think they will have a cure for dementia by 2020.”
He said the answer lay in DNA mapping, claiming it could unlock a “treasure trove” of information to help tackle diseases from dementia to cancer.
Plans are already under way for Britain to be the first country in the world to map the personal DNA code – known as a genome – of up to 100,000 patients.
The project would be the “medical equivalent of the invention of the internet in terms of its significance”, Mr Hunt told the annual conference of the Local Government Association in Manchester.
He added: “For the UK, this is a very big opportunity, because we are the country that first cracked what DNA was back in 1953.