YEAR Eight students at Newent Community School and Sixth Form will hear their winning radio advert played this week as part of dementia awareness week.

The winners of the closely fought competition were asked by 2gether NHS Foundation Trust and other agencies to design a radio advert, lasting up to 40 seconds, targeting people in Gloucestershire, particularly those who are worried about their memory or someone else’s memory.

The competition and airing of the advert coincides with dementia awareness week which finishes this Saturday (May 21).

Pupils Abi Zinkin and Ellie Vaughan won the competition after the results were put to a public vote. Also highly commended were Luke Gerken, Joe Jeremiah, Harrison Taylor, Felicity Williams, Rosie Golding, Jasmine King, Freya Jenkins, Tallulah Armstrong, Sarah Bilsby, Imogen Colenutt and Lois Field, all from Newent School.

Gloucestershire County Council has been working with students across the county about dementia as part of a national project.

The competition was meant to have a winner chosen by 2gether NHS Foundation, but because the five entries were so good, the trust decided to put it to a public vote to decide the overall winner.

The advert will be played on GFM 96.6fm online at www.gloucesterfm.com

Rachel Peak, dementia education facilitator at 2gether NHS Trust, said: “All the adverts were truly fantastic and inspirational, making the final decision very difficult to make – so difficult that we decided to put it to the public vote.”

The national project saw students in Gloucestershire of different ages training each other in dementia awareness; students from Gloucester College trained students from Newent School who then trained Year Six students from Picklenash Primary School.

Di Harrill, head of personal, health and social education, said: “Massive congratulations to Abi and Ellie, the winners, and to all the students for their hard work and creativity in creating the adverts, and for their commitment to learning about and raising awareness of dementia.”

•CROSSROADS Care can support more families living with dementia thanks to a ‘generous’ donation from the Royal Forest of Dean Rotarians.

Pam Graham, chief executive officer of Crossroads Care Forest of Dean, said: “We are very grateful to the Royal Forest of Dean Rotarians for their generous donation, and excited to be able to extend our Dementia Support and Active Living Programme.”

The Crossroads Active Living Programme supports those living with dementia and their families. Activities include day care sessions, gents’ pub lunch clubs, information and advice drop-ins, one-one support planning and assistance in the home. Crossroads Care will shortly be starting an arts and reminiscence project that families can attend together.

For more information call 01594 823414 or email [email protected].