Unique dementia centre given the royal seal of approval at opening

Her Royal Highness enters Sage House with Sally Tabbner

VISITORS to a brand new dementia hub in Tangmere were invited to a special opening ceremony on Tuesday.

HRH Countess of Wessex officially opened charity, Dementia Support's Sage House in Tangmere.

Her Royal Highness was accompanied by Susan Pyper, Lord Lieutenant of West Sussex, and greeted on arrival by several guests including Chichester MP Gillian Keegan, Mrs Caroline Nicholls, High Sheriff of West Sussex, Cllr Elizabeth Hamilton, chairman of Chichester District Council, and Mr Anthony Wickens, Dementia Support chairman and founder.

Her Royal highness was accompanied by Dementia Support chief executive Sally Tabbner and Mr Wickens to see the various dementia support services and to meet customers, carers, volunteers, members of staff and trustees.

The visit started in the Memory Assessment and Information Zone where the Countess of Wessex was talked through the memory assessment process with a psychiatrist and retired GP.

Her Royal Highness was then shown the Care and Activities Zone where the charity runs its dementia wellbeing activities and day care services.

After lunch, the Countess concluded her visit by unveiling a plaque to officially open Sage House and give a speech.

Her Royal Highness said: "Thank you very much for inviting me to do this. I am really pleased to be here and to see the work that you have put into it.

"Clearly it is going to serve your community, so very well. And, as you say, hopefully provide the framework and models for elsewhere in the country.

"On behalf of the individuals and the families that you are here to serve, thank you and all your colleagues and associates for what you have done.

"You will be serving well in the future and I wish you every success."

The Countess was presented with a posy by Edward Page, aged nine, and his six-year-old sister, Bella Page. The siblings both chose the name 'Daisy's Cafe' for Sage House's community cafe, in honour of their great-grandmother, Daisy, who had dementia.

The Countess of Wessex receives a posy from Edward and Bella Page

A specially made Dementia Support bracelet was given to Her Royal Highness by Iris Randell, aged ten, who chose the name 'Forget-Me-Not Lane' for a corridor to the therapy rooms.

Mrs Keegan said: "Once again, Chichester is the leader in this kind of service and it makes you very proud to be part of the community.

"I can only imagine how much help this is going to be for any family that have anybody who is touched by dementia which, let's face it, most of us will be at some point.

"I'm also looking forward, very much, to the education in the community to try and make Chichester more of a dementia-friendly city. That is something to aspire to.

"Somewhere where all of us understand how to help people with dementia for longer in the community, I would be very supportive of that."

Maria Mant from Eastergate, takes her husband, Roger, pictured right, to the support hub after he was diagnosed in 2016 with the illness.

Roger gave the thumbs up when asked how he felt to meet Her Royal Highness.

The couple have used the day activities since the hub opened. Mrs Mant said: "At the moment, we use the day activities. We might look in to day care, maybe I can go off out. But at the moment it's the activities which we come to and do together."

The couple previously lived in Fontwell, where Roger was head groundsman at the racecourse. He said: "Oh, I do like coming here. It's good here."

Sally Tabbner said she was privileged to have The Countess of Wessex opening the hub.

She said: "For someone of this stature to take an interest and come to a local charity is lovely, we are really honoured to have her here.

"It is more than we could ever have hoped for."