On Wednesday 25th October 2023, Steven Hicks and Ian Groves who are members of Restoration Lodge, accompanied Andrew Foster, Mark Davies, John Deamer and Chris Simpson, to visit Sandringham House, which is a Care Home in Bishop Auckland, to present TLC teddies to patients and staff.
They were welcomed to the Care Home by Lisa Grey (Manager), Ruth Stapleton (Administrator), Mark Anderson (Deputy Manager) who came in even though he was not due to be working, Joanne Laybourn (Activity Coordinator) along with all the other care home staff working on that day.
Each room of the care home was visited along with the staff handing out the teddies to Patients/Staff/Visitors and they were given a warm reception from everyone.
Each teddy that was handed out brought a massive smile to the recipient. The visit brought a big uplift to the whole Care Home said the staff.
The reason for the visit was because Restoration Lodge had collected £250 for the TLC Teddies. Steven Hicks had asked the members if they could do a collection for the TLC Teddies at his meeting and the lodge raised a celebratory sum of £250 to buy 100 teddies.
This was the first of the expansion of the project into dementia care following the success of the TLC hospital teddies. The TLC teddies are being donated in Pastel coloured bears to children in hospitals to help make their time there less frightening and bring a smile to their faces.
Building on the success of this and with the help of research, the decision was made to make the bears available to those living with dementia. Rather than a pastel colour, the dementia bears are to be gold and be named as memory bears to encompass all the diagnosis covered by the term Dementia.
It is hoped that these teddies will bring some comfort to those affected by this condition
Tea, coffee and a selection of sandwiches and cakes were provided to all that attended by the Care Home.
At the end – Lisa (Care home manager) said the freemasons of Duham are always welcome to visit Sandringham Care home and this visit has been greatly appreciated by patients and all of the staff.
Website link to Sandringham Care Home here
