Royal visit will seal dementia care home's move (From thisisoxfordshire)

Royal visit will seal dementia care home's move

7:00am Sunday 10th February 2013 in News By Katriona Ormiston, Reporter. Call me on (01865) 425426

A NEW £5m care home near Oxford for people with dementia will officially open with a royal visit.

The manager of Vale House dementia care home in Sandford-on-Thames remembers Princess Diana opening the care home’s previous base in Botley in 1990.

Now the Queen’s cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, will formally open the new Vale House on Friday, March 8. The building has been operating since the organisation moved from Botley a year ago.

Manager Tricia O’Leary said: “We were opened originally by the Princess of Wales, so it is very exciting to have another member of the royal family formally open it.

“I remember we were all dying to see her ring. You can imagine that as a group of nurses, that was what we were all talking about.

“So when Prince William gave Kate that ring and we saw it we all got very excited again, because that ring had been inside Vale House.

“Diana was absolutely delightful. She spent far longer than the time she was scheduled for with the patients. It was a lovely day.”

The Duke will be unveiling a plaque to formally open the purpose-built centre in Sandford Road.

The new building has already made a huge difference to the lives of its patients, relatives of people being cared for there say.

Robyn Keeping’s mum Sally Mills, 80, has been a patient there for 11 years.

The 47-year-old from Abingdon said: “You could never fault the care in Botley or here, but the new building is brilliant.

“It is an absolutely gorgeous location, and the patients have different views whichever way they turn.

“You can see the horses outside, and there is a lovely garden they can use too. It is a lot bigger and lighter, with lots of windows, and the patients can wander the wide corridors freely.

“It is a horrible illness, but having the best care helps.”

Last February, Vale House moved from its 20-bed Botley care home to the new 40-bed home{.

Ms O’Leary, 60, said she had noticed a difference in patients’ behaviour.

She said: “Some of the patients are now a lot calmer than they were before we moved. The whole atmosphere is conducive to people feeling good.”

Following the move, Ms O’Leary said her staffing team was fundraising constantly.

The duke is also visiting the University Church of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford’s High Street and Abingdon’s County Hall Museum in Market Place, where major restoration projects have taken place.