Hays staff get casual to buy new TV for dementia cafe

Staff from across London raised £963 by dressing down for work on Friday July 15. The money has paid for a brand new 50 inch Bush widescreen television and DVD player, which will be used by Alzheimer's Society's Stockwell for workshops and film screenings for people with dementia.

Sue Pope, PA to Hays' Chairman, organised the dress down day. She said:

'Alzheimer's Society is Hays' charity of the year and at the beginning of the partnership we visited their Stockwell office to find out more about what they do. They were showing a film to visitors at their dementia café, but the screen wasn't big enough for everyone to see it.

'I decided to raise some money to help, so all of the Hays London offices agreed to a dress down day, and some offices ran cake sales, too. One member of staff even offered up his own DVD Player and TV but unfortunately it wasn't big enough!'

Simona Florio, dementia café coordinator for Alzheimer's Society in Lambeth said:

'This is a really generous gesture which clearly comes from the heart. This new television will be great as it will improve the range of activities we can offer our visitors and we can include more people. It also means that we can link up to You Tube to show old film clips, which can be very stimulating for our service users as they help to prompt memories.

'We are all very grateful to the staff at Hays. This will make a huge difference to everyone at the Stockwell office.'