2nd December 2022

Trying to help as much as I can is all I want to do.

Duncan Baxter, a member at Old Silk Works Club in Warminster, has won this year's Dame Barbara Windsor Award for his work to support others living with dementia.

The accolade is part of ITV's One Million Minutes campaign that recognises heroes in the community and encourages others to help out by pledging their own time.

Duncan, a retired police officer, was devastated when he was diagnosed with dementia and says going to the club in Warminster helped him to come to terms with his condition. Seeing others whose dementia was more progressed made him want to support them, and he spends his time at Old Silk Works helping other members have the best time they can. He also decided to fundraise for Alzheimer's Support, the local charity that runs the club, and after a daring skydive, is now heading towards his target of £10,000. 

ITV comes to Old Silk Works Club

The award was presented by Eastenders star Jake Wood in a video link during a day of filming Duncan at the club. He told Duncan: "This is so deserved. I was lucky to be a friend of Dame Barbara and she would have been very proud of you I'm sure."

Duncan said: "This award is not just for me. It is for everyone who is here at Old Silk Works. They are not jut people who come along, they are all friends of mine now. I wouldn't change a thing. They have made me feel at home here. That's what it is, it's a second home to me."

News of the award was revealed on ITV's Good Morning Britain breakfast show on Friday when Duncan and his wife Lynn were congratulated by presenters Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard. 

He told them in the live interview: "Trying to help as much as I can is all I want to do. I love working to raise as much money as I can for a unbelievable club that has given me so much. I just want to carry on doing what I have been doing. I am over the moon to be recognised."

Head of Day Care at Alzheimer's Support Grant Newton said: "This is so deserved. Duncan has done so much for the club.

"Duncan was very fearful about coming into a somewhere like this nervous about coming to Old Silk Works but he is a joy to have in the club. He was a police office and has continued to serve by making this his new community. We are all so proud of him and all he has achieved."

 

Love is all around - how Duncan came to Old Silk Works Club 

Volunteer at an Alzheimer's Support day club

Support Duncan with a donation on his fundraising page