Sue’s Raise your Game

Why I’m taking part in Raise your Game

Quite simply, it’s a fantastic way to raise money for Dementia UK’s Admiral Nurses. I became involved with Dementia UK in memory of my mum, Emma.

After my father died in 2001, my mum came to live with us in Hampshire, she was 86. She became our housekeeper, cook and gardener and it gave her a new lease of life.

I noticed that she was becoming forgetful, but it wasn’t until Mother’s Day in 2012 that I realised that something was not quite right. Insisting she was fine, my mum refused to see her GP. However, I was not convinced and so gave up work to be at home and keep her safe.

Sadly, it became increasingly challenging to look after her. She was constantly falling in the house because of reduced coordination. It was these falls which led to her diagnosis of dementia in 2013 when the GP did a home assessment.

Fearing for her safety caused my own wellbeing to suffer to such an extent that I felt I had no other choice but to move her into care. In April 2014 she moved into the local nursing home. This brought on huge feelings of guilt.

I had never heard of Admiral Nurses but I realise just how valuable they could have been in my situation in terms of supporting me with respite, and talking through the feelings of guilt I faced after having put mum in a nursing home.

My memories of playing games

I lived in Germany with my husband as he was in the military. I worked in a very international environment and we used to play Ludo tournaments during our lunch breaks and in between our shifts. It didn’t matter if we didn’t speak the same language as Ludo has a language of its own! A six is a six in any tongue. There were teams of British, German, Portuguese and Yugoslavian and we never tired of playing.

We also lived in Saudi Arabia where we had to make a lot of our own entertainment and regularly hosted board game tournament supper parties.

My favourite game

My favourite game has to be Super Cluedo. The board is bigger than the normal Cluedo with three more characters and three more weapons. The rules are greatly expanded and players have the opportunity to obtain extra clues by reaching extra blue counters which are placed on the board at the start of the game.

My plans for my Raise your Game event

I have set up a virtual event to play Super Cluedo on Saturday 24th October. My daughter and I have been having great fun planning the event. Firstly, we needed to play it just to remember the rules. Then, we had to come up with a way to play it virtually.

We have our nine characters all lined up and ready to play – even my nephew who lives in Bulgaria is taking part as Mrs Peacock! We have asked people to either get into character role, or at least wear a colour of the character they’re representing.

We have worked out a way to show the board via a camera above the table. The players will throw their own dice and I’ll move their characters around the board on their instructions. Any clues they discover will be sent to them via private chat.

I’m so excited!