“We’re not heroes. We’re just people who want to help people”, Lesley Fisher said, reflecting on her decade of dedication alongside the good-hearted trustees of Dancing With Dementia.
Lesley Fisher is the Chairperson of Dancing With Dementia and has seen first-hand how her resilience and determination has paid off over the decade of the group running. Lesley takes pride in knowing she’s created something which has become so many people’s lifeline.
Picture this, It’s 2014 and your sister has just been diagnosed with dementia. You’ve stepped into an unknown territory of worry. But one thing you do know is that it’s now your turn to step up and support your big sister.
Lesley says: “I didn’t know what to do, at that point there was very little support.”
Coming to terms with the news and navigating avenues of limited support Lesley and her beloved sister, Jean, joined Singing With Dementia. The two sisters were in their element. Her sister was taken back to her days in St Mark’s Worsley choir and Lesley appreciated the precious time they were able to continue to spend together.
But Jean’s dementia progressed and it became more difficult to join in with the event. Roles reversed, it was Lesley’s turn to step up as a little sister. She began researching about the illness and soon discovered how theatrics like music, dance and singing were the best forms of therapy for people with dementia.
Shortly after, in December 2015 Lesley decided to take a leap of faith and hold a trial event for ‘Dancing With Dementia’ and the rest is history.
Lesley exclaims: “Where did that time go?”
When forming the group Lesley took inspiration from two of her favourite things- dance and community. After sliding across glossy glamourous ballroom’s dancing latin, sequence and ballroom with her husband many moons ago it seemed like the perfect activity to support people affected by dementia in Salford.
At the time, The Grand Palais had undergone a refurbishment. The universe had aligned at the perfect moment and Lesley was able to bring her vision to life. She could now watch the community graciously dance across the Palais floor while listening to the echoes of the live music. However, In the midst of all the excitement Lesley began finding things challenging.
She says: “A couple of months down the line it got challenging and we thought ‘should we give it up?’ And somebody just said ‘oh I told you it wouldn’t work’ and that was like a red rag to a bull.
“We wanted to do something locally. So, it was wonderful for me to be able to take my sister and do the hokey cokey together.”
From that moment, the project became a community mission and not just to help her sister but also to create a safe space for the rest of the Salford community.
The two sisters now had the opportunity to make relive some of their best childhood memories together as well as making new ones to cherish for a lifetime.
Dancing With Dementia had been running for four years before Covid-19 came crashing down and put everybody’s life on hold. But it wasn’t just the group who was affected, it was Lesley’s relationship with her big sister. Jean was in a care home at this point and the two were no longer within an arms length of each other. This ultimately had a toll on Lesley.
Lesley says: “We had to have conversations over the phone and they gave Jean a mobile phone and she didn’t know what a mobile phone was.”
No amount of training with Age UK could prepare Lesley for some difficult moments. However, she was as prepared and strong she could have been when her sister began confiding to her about being pregnant at 82- years-old. Due to the dementia, her sister was fixated on the idea but Lesley knew how to handle it due to her training and comforted her sister by saying, “don’t worry about that Jean, love I’ll tell mum.”
Jean didn’t like hearing the word ‘dementia’. Before the stigma was broke, people would often use the phrase, ‘oh she’s away with the fairies’ to explain the behaviour.
Lesley has fought over the past decade to break the stigma and has proved to the community that you can still live well and “go places”, She says your social life doesn’t need to come to end when you’re diagnosed with dementia.
Lesley tells me how she’s not a “spring chicken anymore” and I can’t help but giggle at the phrase. It might be 10 years since the first ever Dancing With Dementia event but some things never change. For Lesley and her co-founders, seeing beaming smiles of people as they dance around the Grand Palais never gets old.
Lesley adds: “We’re helping so many people.”
Lesley Fisher may be a Salford Hero in our eyes but she’s quite happy to just take pride in being a good person. However, her dedication to helping people is evidently making her a recognisable face in the Salford community.
“You know, I get people in the street going ‘hi Lesley’, and I have no idea who they are. But everybody seems to know me.”
