Care Home Residents Enjoy Celebrity Limo Experience

Residents at a specialist dementia care home in Ferndown enjoyed a taste of celebrity when they were whisked off for a tour of Sandbanks in a stretched limousine.

Colten Care’s Fernhill in Longham was gifted the outing by local firm Travel in Style Limos following the inaugural Ferndown & Longham Family Festival, which was held at the care home this summer.

Fernhill organised the festival in a bid to raise dementia awareness and to make Ferndown more dementia-friendly.

The family fun event went on to raise £1,400 for the Ferndown Dementia Action Alliance and other local charities.

Fernhill manager Gina Smith said: “When Travel in Style heard about our efforts to raise awareness of dementia they said they would like to help in some way.

“I explained that Colten Care has a new scheme which uses risk assessments to give residents with dementia experiences which wouldn’t normally be available to them.

“One of our residents enjoyed a visit to AFC Bournemouth, his favourite football club. While a lady at another Colten home realised her life-long dream of riding in a hot air balloon.

“Now, thanks to Travel in Style, some of Fernhill’s residents can say they have sipped ‘champers’ in the back of a stretched limo!”

Gina continued: “We are so grateful to Travel in Style for making this trip possible.

“The car was fantastic with music and flashing lights and it really was like being a celebrity behind those tinted windows.”