A SINGING club at a Bradford church is just one of many projects helping the city lead the way in being dementia-friendly.

The Wednesday Warblers, who meet weekly at St Theresa’s Church in Queensbury, is among a number of local initiatives helping make Bradford’s circle of dementia friends grow.

Since a partnership started five years ago between the Alzheimer’s Society and Bradford Council, community projects have been running across all five of the district’s constituencies.

There are 110 organisations that have signed up to become ‘dementia-friendly’ through training and awareness-raising sessions and there are also 23 wellbeing cafes run for people with dementia and their carers, giving them an opportunity to share experiences.

Bradford was one of the first districts to commit to the Prime Minister’s Dementia Challenge, set up by former PM David Cameron in 2012.

And Idle was the first Dementia Friendly Community where councillors and officers got together to discuss what was needed to help people with dementia continue to feel part of their community.

It is estimated that over 6,000 people in the Bradford district have dementia but only 55 per cent of them will have been diagnosed.

The Alzheimer’s Society has been training volunteers to pass on their knowledge to other individuals and organisations making a Dementia Friends circle.

Paul Smithson, service manager of the Alzheimer’s Society (Bradford, Airedale, Wharfedale) said: “For example, a person could go shopping and forget their PIN number and get stressed or upset, then the person on the till or other shoppers in the queue have got impatient. That person may feel that they can’t go out again, that it’s their fault. We are supporting communities to have more awareness of things like this.”

Businesses, including banks, supermarkets and Bradford Council itself have come on board.

Other initiatives have included Year 9 pupils at Titus Salt School in Baildon taking part in Dementia Friends Sessions last summer term and making pledges to help those living with the condition and Northern Rail is working to make the Leeds to Morecambe line, including Keighley Station, more dementia friendly.

Simon Baker, Service Manager, Health and Wellbeing at Bradford Council said: “Dementia is something which will directly or indirectly affect everyone at some point in their lives, so we feel that it is not just down to the NHS, Alzheimer’s Society, or other voluntary organisations to protect and take care of people affected by it.”