The Voices of Caregivers

Rik has been married to June for 47.5 years, they have 5 children and 30 grandchildren.  June now lives in a care home local to Rik.  Rik recently attended the Empowered Conversations and Moving Beyond Word courses.

Can you tell us how you came to be on the Empowered Conversations course?

It was over at Wigan and Leigh Carers Group; I met Karen who told me about the course.  I was struggling to understand how dementia was impacting on my wife.  I couldn’t conceive that dementia could be impacting on me.  The courses have been most useful.

Can you tell us a bit about your family life?

We met through our love of Ballroom dancing; we were teaching Ballroom and Latin at various Dance Schools in and around Manchester for over 20 years.

June had a varied career, she was a clerk and an athlete in the Army until she left.  She went on to train as a swimming teacher in Loughborough and later as a nurse, she was in the last cohort of state enrolled nurses based over at Stepping Hill.  All of the children swim like fishes, I swim like a brick!

I retired from working as a benefits advisor 30 years ago, we […]