Emer runs for My Life Films!

Emer Wynne is running the London marathon to raise money for My Life TV! We caught up with her whilst she is training for the big day in April!

What is your motivation for running for the charity?

I love the uniqueness of My Life Film. Carolin and Jorg have taken such an innovative approach, using the creative arts to help people with dementia to improve the quality of their lives in a simple yet powerful and non-invasive way.  Fundraising is so important for small charities and can easily be overlooked.  I’m proud to be able to help in this small way

Do you know anyone affected by dementia?

Thankfully I’m not directly impacted by someone affected by dementia at the moment but I have friends whose parents and loved ones are.  A wonderful friend who has left the corporate world to become a carer has shared how dementia impacts the lives of her patients and their families.  It’s heartbreaking. 

What’s your background in running?

I took up running in my early 50s and had never run before then.  I was encouraged to get fit for medical / wellbeing reasons.  Encouraged by a friend I joined the Bearcats – a local community running club.  They’ve been great.  I’ve run a number of 10k, a few 10 milers and one half marathon.

How is your training schedule going?

My training is ok.  I’m following a training plan, albeit loosely. I’m good at the runs but poor at strength and flexibility training.  I’ve done an online yoga program but there is some improvement needed there! Running alone is a challenge for me. I’m so blessed to have friends who have run with me on the long runs (13 and 17 miles) even though they’re not training for a marathon.  In addition my family are hugely supportive, though they think I’m crazy!  My husband and eldest daughter are a great team, stepping into my Saturday dog walking duties and preparing a fabulous high carb and protein brunch to help me recover from the long training runs. I’ve already had offers from friends and family to pepper the route to keep me going. How lucky am I? It takes a team to run a marathon it seems. I have a great team!

Emer has raised nearly £700 already, you can donate and support her cause on her Just Giving page.



Remote Filmmaking

Currently unable to film with the families, we are exploring adapting our core filmmaking service by making the delivery completely digital, moving the in-person aspects of the process online; normally a filmmaker would visit a person with dementia and their family at home to learn about their life, so we’ve moved these interviews onto Zoom and people send the photos of their life to the filmmaker over email and WhatsApp. The films are delivered safely and securely via a password-protected Vimeo link, which means they can be accessed via a device connected to the internet at any time, anywhere.

If you want to donate towards the project and helping people living with dementia getting their free film, you can do this just below. Thank you for your support.

https://mylifefilms.org/donate/