Features / Bristol Charity Advent Calendar 2024
Bristol Charity Advent Calendar 2024, Day 15: Alive
In 2009, a young man noticed the dearth of care for dementia patients whether at home or in care homes. Deeply moved and motivated to flip the narrative, Tim Lloyd-Yeates created Alive – a charity dedicated to improving the lives of elderly people and their carers.
Sadly Tim passed away in 2015 from leukaemia but that hasn’t stopped Alive from scaling heights. In a year their activity session roughly benefits over 3500 people with the help of over 200 volunteers.
Alive also runs two dementia-friendly allotments – one in North Bristol and one in South Bristol – where the team has noticed the place serving “different purposes for different people”.
is needed now More than ever
They shared: “For some of the people who attend our sessions, the benefits we observe are dramatic.
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They continued: “Some people experience instantaneous mood changes, some physical changes, some emotional changes and all visibly relax when they’re with us.
“For a few of our participants, these changes are more marked than for others.”
One such participant was John who had to give up his 20-year-old allotment in the city due to dementia. With Alive’s initiative, John was able to revisit his love for plants and all things gardening accompanied by his wife.
John’s wife said the experience made way for “having the old John back”.
Alive’s stories easily remind us that mere love can go a long way. Their community workshops led by trained volunteers are all dedicated towards one goal: creating a world where people live lives full of joy, meaning and connection.
Talking about the charity’s exponential growth over the years, they said: “Alive grew quickly from Tim’s own vision and was providing a varied range of activity sessions to over 350 care homes in Bristol and surrounding counties: West Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire.
“The variety of sessions included art, poetry, variety hour, reminiscence, music, tai chi and exercise.
“We merged with Growing Support in 2018 to then add horticultural therapy to our offering. Alive began to develop our training programme to ensure the right level of activity was taking place throughout the day and each home was using the whole home approach.”
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Alive’s volunteers are motivated to spend meaningful time with the elders in a way that reintegrates them into society, from which many of them have been forgotten.
One member of the charity’s Dementia Meeting Centre said: “Please be patient with me when it takes me a while to find the words I want to say.”
Many elderly are fighting every day to make their presence known and keep up with the changing trends of the world.
Charities like Alive through their mission to prioritise health and wellbeing into later life, teach us to be thoughtful, kind and empathetic so every person can feel welcome in our society.e
Main photo: Alive
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