A team at a Camelot Care home in Somerset have raised over £1,000 to buy two touchscreen tables for people living with dementia.

Staff at Camelot House and Lodge in Wellington took part in the sponsored 5k inflatable fun run in Exeter on 22 April to raise money for the hi-tech tables.

Camelot Care activities co-ordinator Richard Dempslake said: “Ideally we’d like to buy two of them, so seven of us underwent some pretty gruelling training in the hope that we could smash the sponsored 5k inflatable fun run in Exeter on 22 April to raise the money we need.

“The kit will, for example, allow residents to check in with Google Earth to revisit the town or city where they are from and look up the street and house where they grew up, which is something they love to do again and again.

“The tablets have big screens so residents can clearly read what’s on the screen. They’ll allow us to download games and puzzles to suit individual residents, and also enable them to enjoy video calls with friends and family, access websites offering community involvement and so much more.

“We’ve raised £1,100 in sponsorship so far and are hoping that more may still be pledged – we need £2,000 in total.

“The team trained really hard to make sure we were fit to tackle the inflatable fun run which features 32 gigantic inflatable obstacles over a 5k circuit.

“I told a few residents what we were doing, and their first reaction is ‘You’re mad!’ but when I explain why they’ve wished us luck and said they hoped it would go well.

“We are now feeling the aches and pains but it was worth it. I’m so proud of the team who committed to do this with me. Huge thanks to Paul Dempslake, Karen Kerslake, Sophie Carter, Csilla Barabás, Jenny Nutkins and her daughter Isabelle Nutkins – they were all fantastic!”

Details for people wishing to add to the sponsorship money raised are on https://bit.ly/41ktATN