A PUB near Helston swapped tequila for tea when it hosted a charity event for Dementia UK on Wednesday.

Publicans Phil and Sarah, of the Lion & Lamb at Ashton, held a Time for a Cuppa tea party to raise awareness and funds for dementia nurses.

The Admiral Nurses support families going through the toughest conditions caused by one of five main types of dementia a loved one may have.

Jane and Terry Reed, who live in Ashton, wanted to be part of the UK-wide tea party, now in its tenth year, as they both had family members who had suffered with dementia.

Jane's father suffered with vascular dementia, acting completely out of character, accusing her mother of terrible things - all untrue - which was very distressing for her mother.

Terry's sister suffered from a different type of dementia, called dementia with Lewy Bodies, which caused her to have severe paranoia - a very difficult condition for the family trying to care for her.

The five most common types of dementia are: Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, frontotemporal dementia and mixed dementia.

Dementia can affect a person at any age but it is more commonly diagnosed in people over the age of 65 years. A person developing dementia before age 65 is said to have young onset dementia.

There are more than 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK and this is set to rise to over one million by 2025.

Dementia UK’s specially trained Admiral Nurses and social workers provide the specialist dementia support that families need.

Running “Time for a Cuppa” for the last ten years has helped to provide the specialist dementia support which families desperately need. More families however are in need of support, but they need funding.

Dementia UK is on target to have 300 Admiral Nurses in the UK by 2020 working out in the community as well as in care homes, hospitals, hospices and on the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline.

Phil and Sarah at the Lion & Lamb provided all the tea and coffee and gave a “Sunday Lunch for 2” voucher as a raffle prize.

Many local people provided raffle prizes, and homemade cakes and biscuits for which Jane and Terry were very grateful.

Local businesses who supported it included: Trevena Cross Nurseries, Breage, The Lion & Lamb, Tesco’s Helston, Sainsbury’s Helston, Dales Family Butchers, Helston, Pengelly’s Stores, Porthleven.

There were two competitions on the day: 1. Guess the Weight of the Cake (Jane baked the cake which made to the recipe of a Victorian Christmas Cake) 2. Guess the number of sweets in a Jar.

There was an incredible cake created and baked by Becky Lovegrove entitled “A Pig in a Bubbly Mud Jacuzzi” which was auctioned. 

The amount of money that has been raised so far from the event is £435. Jane and Terry thanked all those who contributed to the successful event.

For more information about Dementia, Dementia UK and Admiral Nurses: Dementia UK Website: www.dementiauk.org or phone 0800 888 6678 Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline.