Purple Angels Receive MP4 Players From The Freemasons

Courtland Masonic Lodge based in Paignton recently invited Elaine Waddingham from the charity “Purple Angels” to visit their lodge in Courtland Road where they presented her with 30 MP4 Players including headphones and 16 SD Cards which they use to help dementia sufferers relax and enjoy memories through music. The MP4 Play FM Radio Music and can store songs of their choice as well as photos of loved ones.  

Dennis Huxley who’s idea it was and Phil Greenway the Lodge Charity Steward said that they have been supporting this very worthy cause for some time now and with the support of the other members of Courtland Lodge will continue to do so in the future. As a lodge they have supported various charities throughout the Pandemic to the sum of nearly £6,500 even though they have not held a meeting since March 2020.

The” Purple Angels” dementia campaign started as the” Torbay Dementia Action Alliance” ten years ago  and became the Purple Angel three years later. They changed the name so people across the UK and the world would recognise the logo rather than a Devon seaside town, a move that proved to be very successful. They are still proud to say, we started right here, locally in Torbay

They are very proud to say they are one of the very few charities in the UK where they are all Volunteers and no one gets paid for what we do, we are just so passionate about helping those with dementia.

The FREE MP3 & MP4’s for all with dementia in UK campaign is a huge success and the evidence of how much it helps can be found below , they send out about 150 per month both locally and UK wide and each one has been paid for by public donations as they get no government aid like other large dementia organizations. It costs about £1,300 each month to do this. they say it’s a little nail-biting as we count up what we have every month to pay for these but it’s worth every second of the time spent.

Purple Angels also run a very successful memory cafe where everybody is welcome, with dementia or not, with an average of 40 people attending each week before the pandemic reopened in July 2021. We charge NOTHING for entry and also provide tea/coffee/homemade cakes and activities and entertainment absolutely free but do have a donation pot on entry which helps. they are, as far as is known, the only memory cafe to open on a Saturday, and the reason they do is just that. There isn't anywhere for anybody to go over the weekends regarding carers and people with dementia as the powers that be think it doesn't exist between Friday and Monday.

Elaine Waddingham Said how grateful Purple Angels were for the support they had received from the Freemasons and said that the MP4 players would soon be in circulation giving support to those with Dementia.