Taking on the Tennis-a-thon for my auntie

My son Alfie decided to take part in the Dementia UK Tennis-a-thon as he absolutely loves playing tennis – it’s his favourite sport.

Taking part

As a nurse, I know how awful dementia can be, so I encouraged Alfie to sign up to the Tennis-a-thon to raise money and awareness. We have a personal connection to dementia too – my auntie has dementia, and my uncle is caring for her and having a really tough time. Alfie’s grandad also had Alzheimer’s disease before he died.

To fundraise, we set up a JustGiving page and used WhatsApp and Facebook to spread the word.

Alfie completed the Tennis-a-thon at our local tennis club in Melton Mowbray. He decided to play for 12 hours – 8am to 8pm – on 17th July 2021. The club was very supportive and kept a court free for him for the event.

On the day

On the day, Alfie was supported by club members, family and friends, who joined in at various times over the course of the event. Alfie’s tennis coach kindly gave him an hour’s lesson and donated his fee to Dementia UK, and he also stayed for a few extra hours and arranged some fun tennis games to keep them all going.

As a bonus, we had pizza delivered at the end of the day, which was one of Alfie’s highlights!

Alfie’s Tennis-a-thon was a huge success. He enjoyed playing tennis all day with a variety of players, and raised an incredible £730.

Alfie’s three top tips

1. Make sure that you have the same court booked for the whole day
2. Arrange for plenty of other people to come and play with you
3. Have an incentive to keep you motivated – Alfie’s was pizza!

It’s a great way to play a game that you love for as long as you like and raise money for a really good cause

-Sarah Smith, Tennis-a-thon participant 2021