I am a serving Police Inspector with experience across a wide range of policing roles, including frontline response, neighbourhood policing, control room operations and partnership working. Throughout my career, I have always been passionate about helping people and making a meaningful difference within the communities I serve, but one area that has become particularly important to me is improving the relationship between the emergency services and the dementia community.

As a dementia lead within policing, I have worked to improve officers’ knowledge and understanding of dementia and to ensure that our response to people living with dementia is compassionate, informed and centred around the individual.

A significant part of my work has involved raising awareness of the Herbert Protocol, helping both police officers and communities understand not only what it is, but why it is so important. Used effectively, it can provide vital information when somebody living with dementia goes missing and help the police locate them safely and as quickly as possible. I am passionate about ensuring that families and carers know about the protocol before they ever find themselves in a moment of crisis.

My passion for supporting people living with dementia is deeply personal.

I have lost family members to dementia, and I currently help to support my nan to thrive while living with dementia. For me, that means doing everything possible to ensure she remains safe, happy and independent for as long as possible. This experience has given me an understanding of dementia that goes far beyond my professional role. I understand the challenges families can face, but I also see first-hand that a dementia diagnosis does not mean that someone stops being the person they have always been.

I strongly believe that we should focus not simply on what someone may have lost through dementia, but on everything they can still do, enjoy and contribute.

This is what drives my determination to improve the way emergency services understand and respond to dementia. Police officers and other emergency service professionals will often meet people living with dementia and their families during some of their most difficult or frightening moments. I believe we have a responsibility to ensure that those interactions are compassionate, knowledgeable and supportive.

Just as importantly, our involvement should not exist in isolation. I have a real desire to strengthen the connection between emergency services, health and social care, charities, community organisations, families and carers so that there is a genuinely joined-up approach between a moment of crisis and the support available afterwards.

I want people living with dementia to feel understood rather than judged, supported rather than restricted, and empowered to retain their independence, identity and place within their community.

Becoming a Trustee of Our Dementia Choir gives me an opportunity to bring together something I care deeply about personally and professionally. I hope to contribute my experience of leadership, safeguarding, partnership working and community engagement, while also bringing the perspective of someone whose own family has been touched by dementia.

I am incredibly passionate about what Our Dementia Choir represents. It demonstrates the power of music, friendship, belonging and shared experience, while challenging perceptions about what it means to live with dementia.

Ultimately, my ambition is to help create a society where people living with dementia are not defined by their diagnosis or by what they may have lost, but are supported to live safely, independently, meaningfully and with dignity for as long as possible.

For me, this is more than a professional interest. It is personal, it is something I genuinely care about, and it is something I am determined to make a difference in.