THE Lewy Body Society will be raising awareness of Lewy body dementia throughout the month of June.
In tribute to the Society’s patron, June Brown MBE, known to television viewers as Dot Branning – in the BBC ‘soap’, EastEnders – the campaign is called: Polka Dot-ty Days in June.
Miss Brown’s late husband, Robert Arnold, had dementia with Lewy bodies when he died in 2003.
The Polka Dot-ty challenge is for people to wear the charity’s distinctive branding of white spots on dark blue and then post pictures of themselves and/or friends wearing the polka dots on social media –their own as well as the Lewy Body Society’s Twitter feed, Facebook page and website.
Postings to YouTube and Instagram are also encouraged.
Says a spokesperson: “Lewy body dementia is the second most common form of age-related dementia, accounting for approximately 15 per cent of all cases of dementia.
“It has motor and cognitive symptoms similar to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases so it is often misdiagnosed. Unlike people with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, people with LBD experience hallucinations and dramatic swings in state of consciousness.
Many people still think that all dementia is Alzheimer’s.
“Just as every vacuum cleaner is not a ‘Hoover’, not all dementias are Alzheimer’s,” said the Lewy Body Society’s founder and chair, Ashley Bayston.
ENDS
Notes to editors
The Polka Dot-ty Days information pack which includes a crib sheet on LBD in less than 200 words can be found on www.lewybody.org
@lbsorg #LewyBodySociety#PolkaDottyDays
Founded in 2006 and run entirely by volunteers, the Lewy Body Society (charity number 1114579) is the only organisation in Europe dedicated exclusively to Lewy body dementia.
The Society’s mission is to raise awareness of and support research in Lewy body dementia.
Enquiries to: lewybodypress@gmail.com or +44 7770930784
MEDIA RELEASE issued by the Lewy Body Society. You too can post your story ideas for journalists (aka press or media releases), on allmediascotland.com. Email info@allmediascotland.com for more information.
Check out twitter.com/nonstopstories for your very own media releases feed…
To catch up on all the media releases recently posted on to allmediascotland.com, you need only click the link icon that you see towards the bottom right of our two media release ‘gateway boxes’.
It’s this icon, here. It’s your route straight into the rich archive.
—
Lewy Body Society contact details…
Contact: Ashley Bayston
Phone: 07770930784
Email: lewybodypress@gmail.com
Website: http://www.lewybody.org
