To think that dementia is not funny?

[Polgara25]

www.notonthehighstreet.com/globee/product/adventure-before-dementia-luggage-strap

Seriously?????

It isn't supposed to be funny ,it is about making tbe most of life whilst you can

This is the response I got from the seller:

Thank you for your message and please accept our utmost apologies for any offence this has caused This is certainly not our intention, nor is it to make light of such a serious condition However it is in fact the most popular strap that we sell
Nevertheless, your comment has inspired an idea. Going forward, with every one of these straps sold we will donate 50p to Alzheimer's Research (UK). I hope that this goes some way to conveying that we do not take dementia lightly, we are just trying to create some laughter in an often sad, cruel and dangerous world.

I wrote to the seller yesterday expressing my concerns. Just received this back:

Well, it was certainly worth writing the email.

I dont think the illness of dementia is remotely funny, but the behaviour it can cause some suffers to do are quite funny, more so when you see their "old" self.

I laughed at something the other day and it was not remotely funny, but it did/does have the comic/sketch book comedy that you only read/see in sketches.

I was actually ashamed I laughed at it when I came off the phone, so not sure if it was a nervous giggle or not.

Its was a man whose wife pulled him out of his wheelchair and started beating him up with his own prosthetic leg. I thought he was brave, because not many men come forward with DV, in what I do.

I then went into professional mode, done all the legal and seriousness requirements to protect him.

But afterwards I giggled, because the whole thing situation was just so bloody surreal.

Very odd product description. I don't find it funny.

My gran will LOVE that, and she has dementia! I'm going to get it her for Christmas.

My gran will LOVE that, and she has dementia! I'm going to get it her for Christmas.
if your gran would love it and understands the sentiment,. and is still travelling to use the luggage strap and knows what Christmas is and recognizes you - she has mild/early stages of dementia.
that is not what is upsetting many of us on here who see the final stage effects of dementia on our loved ones and it is not funny to them (or those who care for them)

Yep, she's 102 and has just been diagnosed. It will make her smile. That is what Christmas is about.

Sadly she is not travelling any more, but does use a suitcase often. We all know it is going to get worse. She knows this too. We've all had a long and wonderful amount of time with her, for which we are very grateful. For me to still have a gran at 57, and my mum to still have her own mum at 78 is near miraculous.

My mother and I are very lucky women to have had her in our lives, and we will continue to feel lucky and combat disease with darker humour until the day she dies, and then some.

good for her at 102 - I meant no offence. But she is not typical of late stage dementia and its awful consequences as others on this thread have evidenced.

My mum died earlier this year. She had dementia for 4 years. There were some things (amidst the tears, hallucinations and incontinence) that did make me laugh. A horrified, hysterical kind of laughter, because it was so fucking awful. Dementia isn't funny, and neither is that strap.

Well, I just asked DH what he thought of this slogan on a case strap and he said "Genius!" - this is the man who witness his mother succumbing to dementia.
He is entirely of the opinion to 'seize the day' and would not be shy to advertise that is what he's doing.

Horses for courses, I guess.

With my grandma it was a you'd have to laugh or you'd cry kind of thing.
Especially ehen she got me confused with Kate Middleton and started probing me as to why I was on the front page of the paper

There are a lot of ways to express carpe diem without jokey references to horrific diseases.

Definitely not funny.

Mum has lewy body dementia, been in a carehome for over 6 years now.

You should definitely have your adventures before dementia (or cancer, or heartfailure). My sister lives in the canaries (so very very hot and with baking sun). An elderly couple went for a mountain walk. The wife came back alone, she did not know where she had been, she did not know where her husband was, she did not know who she herself was, etc. She was found wandering aimlessly, as she did not know where her hotel was. Her husband had fallen in the mountain, probably asked her to fetch help. He was found a few days later, dead. People often try to go on with life as before even when a spouse has developed dementia.

the behaviour it can cause some suffers to do are quite funny

Not always.

My mum was only funny once (in my sons opinion) when she forgot she gave them ice cream already and went to get them one more, so they had two cornettos each after dinner. This was early on, while she could still cook a little, and lived at home.

Later on when she tried to escape at night, in search of her mum and her childhood home, and when she rang me in the morning in hysterics asking me to fetch my children who had been leering at her wearing devils masks all night, it was not funny. (my dc were asleep in their beds) It was also not funny when she was crying on the phone that I had to come and fetch her on holiday, because she did not like the views from her apartment, she did not like the chamber maid walking in and out all the time, she did not like the food, she did not know where to find the rubbish bin, and she did not like the other couple having sex in the other bedroom all the time, it was not funny. Because she was actually in her own home, she just did not recognize it, and goodness knows how scary it must have been for her, with psychosis and seeing people that were not there.

Quintshhhhh my Dad has lewy body too - it's awful, the terror, the hallucinations and definitely not funny.

I've had family affected by dementia and it is horrendous (although not without its slightly humourous moments in the very early days... remote control in the fridge etc) but I can't bring myself to get worked up about a luggage strap.

That said, I did get very angry about a mock band tshirt I saw with "Syndrome of a Down" on it, so it's swings and roundabouts I guess...

I agree on one level it is witty and the stuff of wry smiles. Can't speak for other but I am reacting as I have come to the point were I am angry at the differential way dementia is judged and valued to cancer or other equally serious illnesses. Cancer rightly has a high profile, massive public support and attracts more government and public funding for services and research. Changing the way we think and speak about dementia is part of the change we need to get dementia on an equal footing

It is especially important as there will be more and more dementia sufferers.

My mums geriatric consultant had her own views on why dementia was so widespread now. She said more and more people were taking life extending medications. There were people who would have died earlier from illness. Like my mum who has had bone marrow cancer since I was in Uni, and been medicated the last 20 years. Without her cancer meds, she would have been dead long ago. The consultant said in her view people lived long past their brains "expiry dates". Of course not everybody with dementia has extended their lives through medication, but many has. There is also the element of modern life and modern processed diet. She said she was so glad she would be retired by the time the chips and coke generation got old.

I think it's different for someone caring for/close to someone with dementia to laugh at or make light of a harrowing situation. I object to dementia being used to sell things (unless it is actually a charity item where all the money goes to a dementia charity). I object to using breast cancer to sell pink things for the same reason.