A team of motivated staff from a Wellington care home has raised over £1,000 in sponsorship to help them realise their dream of buying two high-tech touchscreen tables for use by residents living with dementia.

The home had a week’s free trial of a ‘table tablet’ to see if the people who live at Camelot House and Lodge would enjoy it, and the kit was such a huge success the staff decided they had to have their own.

Camelot Care activities co-ordinator Richard Dempslake said: “Ideally we’d like to buy two of them, so seven of us underwent some pretty gruelling training in the hope that we could smash the sponsored 5k inflatable fun run in Exeter on 22 April to raise the money we need.

“The kit will, for example, allow residents to check in with Google Earth to revisit the town or city where they are from and look up the street and house where they grew up, which is something they love to do again and again.

“The tablets have big screens so residents can clearly read what’s on the screen. They’ll allow us to download games and puzzles to suit individual residents, and also enable them to enjoy video calls with friends and family, access websites offering community involvement and so much more.

“One of our sponsors has said how much her husband, who lives with us, will love looking at films of trains on heritage railways, which is exactly the kind of passion we want to help nurture for as long as possible.

“We’ve raised £1,100 in sponsorship so far and are hoping that more may still be pledged – we need £2,000 in total.

“The team trained really hard to make sure we were fit to tackle the inflatable fun run which features 32 gigantic inflatable obstacles over a 5k circuit.

“I told a few residents what we were doing, and their first reaction is “You're mad!” but when I explain why they’ve wished us luck and said they hoped it would go well.

“We are now feeling the aches and pains but it was worth it. I’m so proud of the team who committed to do this with me. Huge thanks to Paul Dempslake, Karen Kerslake, Sophie Carter, Csilla Barabás, Jenny Nutkins and her daughter Isabelle Nutkins – they were all fantastic!”

Details for people wishing to add to the sponsorship money raised are on https://bit.ly/41ktATN

Camelot House & Lodge is run by award-winning dementia care providers Camelot Care who have other homes in Bridgwater, Yeovil and Plymouth.