00:00Music, games and the odd drink or two. Residents living with dementia in one Swanley care home
00:06have seen a transformation in their evening entertainment, all thanks to a fundraiser
00:12by a local pub landlord. Mark Swanock, who runs the White Cross Inn, raised £1,000 in honour of
00:20one of his regulars, who lost her husband to dementia a couple of years ago. Part of the
00:26money from the fundraiser has gone towards renovating this room into a bar where the
00:31residents can come and socialise in the evenings. And the reason we did the bar really is because
00:36we're quite a sociable crowd here and some of our residents like to go out but obviously in the
00:40evenings it's not always possible and so we renovated the room really just to accommodate
00:45the needs of the residents which was just to have a social bar area just for early evening. But not
00:51all the residents like to go to bed too early. The bar night here is very good and we appreciate
00:57it
00:58because I don't like going to bed at 20 to 6. I like nightlife. My husband and I dance four
01:06times a
01:06week when I was years ago. The bar is equipped with a jukebox as well as games like snooker,
01:14darts and dominoes. We like to enter in games that we play, pub games there are. I don't often,
01:25I don't often win but I like playing for playing sake really. There's no better than being on your own.
01:37And staff say that the bar has been particularly important for bringing male residents together.
01:42You find a lot of like the male residents here, it sort of takes them back to their social lives
01:48and
01:48they sort of like to get together because you find a lot of the women residents like to do all
01:53the
01:53activities together whereas the male residents like to come in here and have a drink.
01:58Well you meet people, different people in life, I mean, it's a company, it's a company, enjoy people.
02:06Yeah. The care home has also spent some of the money on lifelike dolls which they say help to
02:13provide residents with comfort and a sense of purpose. And while they say they still have some
02:19more additions to make with the donation, residents are already toasting the bar's future.
02:25Sophie Denny for KMTV in Swanleigh.
