Angela Rippon at the Dementia Conversation in Rutland

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is David Fitzgerald, formerly of the BBC, Sky, ITV, but with a

00:07passion now for dementia and communication. I'll explain a little more a little later.

00:13Thank you for attending today, it's going to be a fascinating conference. The lady who

00:18has brought us all together today, I am so glad to say, is Alicia Kent, the Right Honourable

00:24Minister of Health and Welfare. Would you like to officially open?

00:35Well I'd like to start actually by just saying a big thank you to all of you for coming today.

00:41When I launched Rutland's Red Dementia Conversation at the start of this year, I was really nervous

00:46because it's the one thing none of us feel comfortable talking about. It's the one thing

00:50we still whisper to each other when we talk about a loved one or a family member or someone

00:54we know having it. And I'm just really grateful to our county, because every event we've held,

00:59whether it's the John Sushi and Noodle, whether it's my market stalls, whether it's the training

01:03for businesses, whether it's the training for community groups, you have turned out.

01:07So I'm really, really grateful to you. Today we're going to have, we have the experts,

01:11we have the foremost experts in the country in talking about dementia, so we have lots

01:16of time for you to ask questions as well. And all I want to say is thank you to all

01:20of you, because what you are doing is making a difference. We've already seen more people

01:24coming to me saying, thanks for what you're doing, I realise my partner had dementia,

01:28we've gone through it again by the numbers. So thank you to all of you for participating

01:32in the conversation. And I'm going to hand over today, it's definitely not about me,

01:36it's about hearing from these wonderful people. I'm so grateful from the bottom of my heart,

01:39particularly you were all booked months and months ago, and the election puts weight to

01:43that, so thank you to all of you for giving your time. I'm really grateful, give a massive

01:46round of applause for our wonderful panel.