Ruth Owen from Full Circle Funerals, one of our Age and Dementia Friendly Businesses, has captured some reflections on Dementia Awareness Week and what it means to her.

As Dementia Awareness Week 2026 approaches, I’ve been reflecting on what this week
means to me. But even before that, I’ve been wondering why I’m feeling so reflective.
March brings Mother’s Day and my mum’s birthday, and it’s also the month when my
Dementia Friends dashboard showed me that I have created 650 Dementia Friends through
more than 50 Information Sessions since 2018. I felt truly humbled that my journey with
dementia has created a legacy that contributes to the 3,888,523 Dementia Friends made since
the Alzheimer’s Society launched the social action movement in 2013.

My journey with dementia began in 2006, when I was pregnant with my daughter and my
mum started showing signs—mainly around her mobility—that seemed a little off-kilter for
her. She had experienced brain cysts as a child and again in her mid-twenties, which were
treated with brain surgery and radiotherapy. She recovered, married, had a family, drove,
worked—she lived a full and ordinary life. But in 2006, she was told that the treatment she’d
had 40 years earlier for brain cancer (which she never knew she’d had—a whole other story!)
was now causing her brain to deteriorate.

The following five years were filled with health and social care advocacy, endless questions,
seeking advice and support, relationship changes, grieving, parenting, working, arranging
home care, and eventually finding a care home for someone under 65. It was… a lot.
Mum died in 2011, at only 61 years old. In 2017, I changed careers and became a Funeral
Director at Full Circle Funerals. That May, I attended a Dementia Awareness Week event at
The Clarke Foley Centre in Ilkley. It was an inspiring evening. It was whilst listening to the
Dementia Friends Information Session that I had a lightbulb moment. So much suddenly
made sense—how the fairy lights analogy explained the way dementia affects the brain, how
the bookcase analogy helped me understand the painful days when Mum didn’t remember
our visits or the days out we’d shared.

And so began the next chapter of my dementia journey: becoming a Dementia Friend,
supporting Full Circle Funerals to join the local Dementia Action Alliance, creating
Dementia Friends by becoming an Ambassador, and joining the Leeds Dementia Action
Steering Group.

Mum’s story isn’t a typical dementia story. She didn’t have one of the four more common
causes of dementia. I didn’t even connect her symptoms to dementia until five years after she
died. She was also young. But what was familiar was the constant need for emergency help,
the search for professional guidance, the confusion, the difficult care decisions, the shifting
relationships, and the effort to make new memories while grieving the old ones.
As a funeral director, I see every day how people want to do something meaningful in
memory of someone they love. I didn’t realise I needed that too. But what I now understand
is that being a Dementia Friend has become my legacy to my mum, and I am so grateful to
have that opportunity. We also recognise the power of a community, a village of people who
support one another, and that is why all of our team have Dementia Friends training and why
we strive for our funeral homes to be a safe and welcoming space.

If you would like to book onto a Dementia Friends Information Session (at any time of the
year, not just in Dementia Awareness week) at one of our locations or a location of your
choosing, please contact Ruth on 01943 262626 or email ruth@fullcirclefunerals.co.uk.

Leeds Older People’s Forum and the Friendly Communities Team also offer Dementia Friends sessions for our Age and Dementia Friendly businesses. These sessions provide valuable insights and practical guidance on creating a more inclusive environment for people living with dementia.