 on Monday the 14th of November, Davey Fury live in studio and we always enjoy having Davey up because there's always a bit of track with them. All right, moving on to our first guest. I'm delighted because normally, as we say, it's about promoting the music. And I suppose this is an angle too, but most guests we bring in usually do a song unless our next guest wants to just change her mind and burst into the song sometime. That's entirely up to herself, but I'm delighted to welcome Fiona Loge. Fiona, thanks for joining us. You're very welcome. Thank you for having me on. It's a pleasure. And your story, I got the email and you were just looking for to get it to mention and I tried to get the name out there about this, but it's melodies and memories. Yes. And it takes place, I'll just give this but out for us, it takes place every Monday afternoon at 4.30 to 6.30, am I right? 2.30 to 4.30. Near and off, near and off. And basically it involves music around people with dementia. So tell us, just give us an outline, your outline of it. Okay, well, the philosophy behind the group is that I invite people who are living with dementia and their family members and friends to come along for a couple of hours each week where they can just have fun that they're all in the level playing field. Any labels or stigma is left at the door and the most important thing is that they have a bit of crack and that there's a realization and acceptance just because you get this diagnosis that you get forgotten about or your life is over or whatever, it's so important to realize that people have so much to give post diagnosis. And they love coming along and having a sing song and having a cuppa and having a chat. You see, there's a suppose, and I'm not qualified in this field by no means, but I'm thinking to myself, there's a lot of elements covered here because you're covering the carer obviously who's looking after these people and they're getting to meet other carers, say. Then you're getting the, is the right word to use dementia suffer? Is that right to say? I don't like sufferer. I very much go, anytime I'm describing it, I say living with dementia. Because there is life. And okay, there is, it is a challenge without a shadow of a doubt, it is a challenge. Because you have experience of this yourself. I have experience of it. My mom, unfortunately, she died a couple of years ago, but my mom was diagnosed with dementia and lived with it for 10, 12 years. And to be honest, she is actually one of the main reasons why I set up the group, because as she was kind of disappearing from us, one of our main ways of having communication with her was certainly through music and very much through song. Isn't that, you see, that's an amazing thing that I've been sort of realising myself in a non-educated way again. And thanks for putting me right on that one, because it's important that people are given the right name and rather than, as you say, sufferers, people are living with it. But music seems to, for us who listen to it, but for people in various situations, if you're struggling mentally, music can help you. If you're somebody in a coma or some music, music is just capable of bringing so much hope and life to people. Yeah, like music just covers so much. It covers a multitude of things, and you can have happy times, you can have sad times, you can have solo singers, you can have people singing at football matches, you can have people singing in church, you know, like just, as I say, a multitude of things and so many different styles of music as well, which is so important to so many people. Tell me this, we'll go back. When did you start this group initially? Was it pre-COVID? It was pre-COVID. I initially started the group back in 2017, and we had just a wonderful group of people, and that's what, like, you're starting off and you don't know what's lying in front of you. Like, I could have had, I could have been talking to myself, but gradually and thankfully the group built up and we just, we keep talking about the melodies and memories, community and family. Oh, right. And that's what we became. Now, unfortunately, as we know, COVID came along and we had to take a gap, shall we say, and then during that time, some of our members either passed on or it became impossible for them to attend, but I will say, and this is just a tribute to all our previous members and our current members, that some of our family members, whose relatives attended Melodies and Memories, have now still decided to come back and help out, which is a huge tribute to Melodies and Memories. Of course it is. And it just speaks about the kind of family we are. Well, exactly. And people want to get in contact with you on it. What's the best way? There are various ways. We have a phone number, which is a Northern phone number. You have the details of it, I think. We have, I'll get it out here now. And there's an email address and we also have a Facebook page. Okay, we'll put it on our Facebook page and all the connections, okay? The number, if anyone's interested, is 004, if you're ringing from the south, 004-756-170-6815. So that's 004-756-170-6815. And don't be worried if you didn't get the number, because it will be up on our social media pages. And anybody can come along. And do you know, I'm sure you've seen it. You've seen the benefits of the whole connection with everyone who's involved. Hugely. And it's great. I should say this isn't, it's like, I call it a music group, it's not a choir. It's a music group and people come along. And depending on their form, they may join in. They may join in for one song. They may join in for 10 songs. There are no rules. Everything is very, very easy. And Aiki, I say that I facilitate the group. Oh, actually. You know, I facilitate the group. And we have choice of material. And they choose, like I have booklets of various songs prepared. And they choose what songs we sing all the day. Are you musical yourself? I would say yes. My background, as I say, my whole family, we were a musical family. We grew up surrounded by music. And I will admit to being a music teacher in a school. Now I'm retired now. All right. But I was a music teacher and head of music for a few years. Oh, very good. Just in case somebody might say, I know that voice. And I also did the master's in music and focused on community music with music and dementia. Well, Fiona, as I say, it's an absolute pleasure. I think you should commend it very much so. But I know I know I know that you get so much out of it. This is you can see it a hundred percent. Yeah, it's melodies and memories. And it's down in the Acorn Center in St. Peter's Church. It's in the grounds. It's in the grounds of St. Peter's Church, which sometimes people say, where and under God is that? So it's on Clamore Road. And it's very near the end of the Foyle Bridge. Yes, just near the Foyle Hospital, isn't it? Yes, just beyond. Just beyond the Foyle Hospice. So if anyone is listening and, you know, this just might trigger someone to go, do you know what? This might help because, trust me now, and you'd know better than I do. Music helps in so many ways. It really does. Fiona, continue success with it. And thank you so much. I know it's a dark old night and yourself and Brian have made the journey up, but we totally appreciate it. And it's good to get the word out there. And thank you so much. You never know. You might bring a group up there some night. You never know. You never know. Fiona, thank you so much.