A GANNET Foundation grant is like a golden ticket for a community charity – just ask Taunton’s Reminiscence Learning.

Reminiscence were able to put their vital dementia project, Please Do Not Forget About Me, into action after benefiting from an £8,504 grant from the Gannet Foundation.

The Gannet Foundation is the charitable arm of Gannet, owner of the national Newsquest Media Group, which owns the Gazette among many other newspapers, magazines and websites nationwide.

Reminiscence Learning’s raison d’être is to spread the word on dementia training, giving individuals, carers and residential homes, volunteers and NHS professionals the tools to cater for the needs of loved ones and patients.

Aimed at people with late stage and end-of-life dementia, Please Do Not Forget About Me is about helping individuals bond and open up, and improving their quality of life.

Receiving the £8,504 grant has meant not only that Reminiscence Learning has been able to publish its tactile Please Don’t Forget About Me book, filled with simple, practical activities for dementia sufferers, along with thoughtful sentiments and touching poetry.

The money has enabled the charity’s “activity angels” to buy iPads and comforting toys for their vital one-on-one sessions with patients at Dunkirk Memorial House, Bishops Lydeard.

Chief executive Fiona Mahoney said: “Receiving the grant was fantastic.

This project is something we have wanted to do for a long time, to focus on later stage and end of life dementia.

“We didn’t necessarily have the resources that would have been suitable for this, so we’ve managed to spend a lot more money on things like toys, which are really expensive, and it’s given us the opportunity to buy iPads, which we wouldn’t have been able to afford, and they’ve changed our lives really.”

Every year, the Gannet Foundation gives funding of between £5,000 and £10,000 to local projects and organisations bringing lasting benefits to the communities and neighbourhoods in which it operates.

For grant applications – along with full guidelines and restrictions – visit somersetcountygazette.co.uk/gannett_foundation. Email applications to County Gazette editor Alex Cameron at alex.cameron@nqsw.co.uk, before 5pm on September 16.

l Reminiscence Learning has 20 copies of its book, Please Don’t Forget About Me, to give away.

To collect a free copy, drop into the Somerset County Gazette offices at 44, St James’ Street, Taunton, TA1 1JR, and ask at reception.