Project Description

Grandma Alison

By Lindsey Atkinson
1st Published 4th May 2020 Lockdown

I’d like to introduce my grandma Alison, who was part of the
Windrush generation. She migrated from Barbados to England in 1960
to train to be a nurse and she worked for the NHS for many years.

On March 5th, I noticed she was confused and unusually sleepy. The hospital confirmed that
she’d had a stroke. During every visiting hour we gathered around her bed and brought some
normality to her day.
Over the next few weeks the number of COVID19 cases grew and visiting was drastically reduced
before being stopped altogether.
My grandma moved onto two other hospitals and on the 12th April she was discharged early to
minimise the risk of her catching the virus.
As she still needed 24 hour care, I decided I would move in with her and after isolating for the
suggested time – I did! Whereas my grandma was a nurse for many years.. me and my mum are
still figuring things out.

What does lockdown look like for us? I’ve always dreamt of pausing time so I can spend more
time with my family… so while this situation is a sad one, I feel incredibly lucky I can live with my
grandma while most people are forced to be apart from their grandparents.

Caring for a family member can sometimes be challenging (especially when activity is so limited)
so I thought I’d share some things that are working for us.

Routine seems to be very important right now, and we have made daily activity plans to make
sure my grandma has a variety of things to do.

The highlight of our day is our ”Mr Motivator in da house’ ‘work-out session!Mr Motivator is a Jamaican-born British fitness instructor who rose to fame in the 90’s through
appearing on GMTV. He is well known for his vibrant, multi-coloured jazzy lycra unitards and even
jazzier moves. My grandma was a big fan and we’re so excited he’s back to motivate people who
have to isolate. She has been enjoying his seated exercises specifically for elderly people or
people with limited movement, and he even gave her a shout out on her 79th birthday!

Another important activity is listening to music. This also doubles up as more exercise and
speech therapy as grandma likes to wind her hips and sing along.

We also couldn’t do this without the incredible support/advice from the NHS and charities like
Age-UK and The Stroke Association.

If you’d like to check out Mr Motivator’s Youtube sessions ~ find his channel (Mr Motivator) and
join in with his live sessions every weekday at 12pm, or watch them any time!
He’s also running a social media campaign on Instagram (realmrmotivator)
where he’s asking people to submit dance videos in aid of AGE UK!

Thank you for reading and I wish you all the best!

Love Lindsey x x x x x x x x x x