Guest Speaker Report
by
Rotarian Peter Douglas
Wednesday 10 June 2009
Our guest speaker was Gunilla Denton Cook who spoke about a book - ‘Lost Words’ that she has written. Gunilla was introduced by PGD/PP David Croft.
Gunilla who is of Swedish birth has worked as both a Print Designer and Teacher of Art and has a son who is an Animator.
Gunilla has written a very special book which is an aid to both people who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease and their care givers.
The concept was born in a very personal way. Gunilla’s mother was a sufferer from Alzheimer’s as was her mother in law, her grandmother and her grandmother’s sister.Gunilla noted that there was a communication problem with her mother in that she knew what she wanted but was unable to clearly remember the name of the article until a chance situation where the mother found a photo of what she wanted and pointed to it with a request for it. From here the idea was born. Gunilla took her trusty Ikea catalogue and cut out photos of a whole range of products and placed them into transparent covers. It became her mother’s trusty companion and helped them both to communicate her mother’s wishes. Surprisingly her mother was able to experience past episodes just from looking at the various photos.
When Gunilla moved to Australia she decided that the concept needed to be expanded and made available to the whole world of Alzheimer’s sufferers and their care givers.
She approached publishers Simon and Schuster who where particularly impressed with the simplicity of the concept and agreed to publish the book. Much time and effort went into sourcing a whole range of appropriate photos and the result is ‘Lost Words’.
I noted from a recent article that upwards of 70000 people are diagnosed with some form of Dementia every year in Australia and with an ageing population this figure can only grow. It is also noted that there is currently no cure available to sufferers.
After questions Gunilla was thanked by PP Roger Vince.