Karen

I was born in South Africa, my parents emigrated out there from Glasgow as there was no work at the time for my dad who was a draughtsman. It was a fantastic way of life, we went to school early at 8am but the bonus being we finished at lunch time every day so a lot of our time was spent on the beach or swimming in the sea, not that you could do much swimming as the waves were massive but I may have been a champion surf boarder by now had I still been there. It certainly was an experience. When I was 24 I went to live in Cyprus with my husband who was posted there with the RAF. It was a very sociable place. Lots of us met up for barbeques on the beach. It was very warm there, but surprisingly there were times you could go and ski in the mountains in the morning and then go and sunbathe on the beach in the afternoon. I really enjoyed my time there.

I enjoy coming to the resource centre now that I know everyone, it’s a very friendly place with everyone more than willing to help out if you need anything, it gives me some sense of purpose which I felt I had lost since being diagnosed. The food here is excellent, I will be like the side of a house before long. Still, I can always blame the medication! I have some nice people here too, who can in some ways relate to what I’m going through, so that helps tremendously. The Thursday afternoon group is a small but friendly group, we can all relate to each other and what we are each going through which really helps as sometimes people that aren't going through the same sort of thing don’t really understand. The computer classes have been an experience too as they have really opened my eyes to what can be done on a computer! On a Monday afternoon I go to an Alzheimer’s group where we all meet up for a chat and a bit of support should we need it, my dad was diagnosed with it in his fifties, which is very young. He is now in his early sixties and goes to a day centre at Spynie to give my mum a break. It’s such a cruel disease. Hopefully they will find a cure before long although it wont be in my dads time but it might just save some other families going through what we have. My ultimate aim would be to get my condition under control my confidence back and so too my life. Seriously, I would like to see myself back in full time employment, making my own money to do the things that I want to do, and have a life, if my life could ever be considered normal. What I miss most about my illness was having to give up my job as a restaurant manager, I used to manage the restaurant in the St Giles centre and travel to our other restaurants and help train up the new managers there until they had found their feet, so I was never really stuck in one place long enough to get bored. Also having to give up driving really hurt as I loved to drive, its all I ever wanted to do from when I was knee high to a midget! I know the day will come when I will look back and it will all have seemed as if it had never happened, just roll on that day!