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89 year old inspiration Irene Mackenzie, from Haddington, has made the most of the current coronavirus lockdown by knitting a selection of twiddle muffs for people with dementia, which are being donated to Alzheimer Scotland. As well as this, Irene has raised an incredible £1390 and counting for our charity, after being motivated by Captain Tom Moore’s recent fundraising efforts for the NHS.
The keen knitter started work on the colourful twiddle muffs, which are designed to provide a stimulation activity for restless hands for people with dementia, six months ago and has set a target of creating 100 brightly coloured muffs.
Irene said:
"Like so many elderly and vulnerable people, I’ve found the recent Coronavirus lockdown situation difficult to adjust to in numerous ways.
"Luckily for me, whilst nowadays I’m a bit unsteady on my feet, I’m still very keen and pretty capable of doing all sorts of crafts and so have been filling the many hours, days and weeks of social isolation by knitting twiddle muffs.
"There are actually several advantages to knitting twiddle muffs. Of course, the first and most important benefit is to the recipients ... people with dementia often have restless hands and like to have something to keep their hands occupied.
"A twiddle muff provides a wonderful source of visual, tactile and sensory stimulation, and keeps hands snug and warm at the same time.
"But I’ve found there are also benefits for me too – not only is knitting keeping me physically and mentally occupied, it’s also making a great dent in my enormous stock of gorgeous textured and coloured wool that I’ve been buying and hoarding for years ... one of my guilty pleasures!"
"Watching Captain Tom’s recent endeavours to raise such an awesome amount for the NHS has been an inspiration to us all."
To help motivate me I’m hoping that all you generous people might help me raise funds for Alzheimer Scotland, which is Scotland’s national dementia charity, whose aim is to make sure that nobody faces dementia alone.”
You can keep up to date with Irene's fundraising total here.
Well done Irene, and thank you!