Nicci's Story

This is Nicci and this is why she is taking on the Dare to Dive skydive challenge for Alzheimers Northland …

“My dad has had Alzheimer’s for approx 7 years now. I moved into my parent’s home to help my mum look after him, I work from home so I used to be able to look after him while mum went about still doing the things she loves.

I noticed a huge decline in him over the last 2 years and he started to go to Alzheimers House for the Alzheimers Northland day programme once then twice a week and they were fantastic with him, it also gave us the break that we needed.

In about August last year he started to get worse, always had to pull the plants out of the garden, tipping drinks on the floor and even toileting was a struggle. In November last year we had to put him in a home as we could no longer cope with him as he had started hitting and becoming abusive.

Kevin at Alzheimers Northland helped us with finding a home and we were very lucky to find one room available in Dementia care at Kamo Home, so we signed up straight away. Kevin picked Dad up from the Hospital and took him to the home and settled him in for us as that was going to be very stressful for my mum, myself and also Dad. Now he is in the best place he can be and is very happy.”