EAST Hampshire MP Damian Hinds hosts a Dementia Friends information session at Liphook’s Millennium Centre next month.

The Conservative junior minister has personal experience with dementia, after his mother was diagnosed having the decease eight years ago.

“Before my late mother was diagnosed with a form of dementia I thought I knew a lot about the condition” he said. “When the diagnosis came I realised how far from the truth that was.

“More than 26,000, people in Hampshire have a form of dementia and across the UK a new person develops it every three minutes. Despite its growing prevalence, public understanding of the condition remains poor, which is why the Alzheimer’s Society are running a programme to boost awareness, and also why I decided to get involved and become a Dementia Friends Champion.”

The Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Friends programme has been set up to tackle the stigma of dementia that can often result in people with the condition experiencing loneliness and social exclusion.

The society aims to create more communities and businesses that are dementia friendly so that people affected feel understood and included. To achieve this aim volunteer Dementia Friends Champions run information sessions to create “Dementia Friends”.

Mr Hinds joined members from the fire service and care home sector, as well as teachers, on a one-day course to learn more about dementia in order to become a champion,

It proved to be a powerful inspiration, Mr Hinds said. “People with Alzheimers or Dementia still enjoy the company of their loved ones, even if they can’t remember factual things, and regular visits are so important to them.”

“I urge everyone to be open minded and not judgemental with anyone suffering from this condition, which tends to affect people in different ways.”

The free Dementia Friends information session takes place on February 12 at the Millennium Centre, on Canada Road, between 6pm and 7pm.