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Rachel McDonald

Winter Reading Challenge

Help me reach my goal of £250

I'm doing Winter Reading Challenge for Dementia UK

This winter, I'm reading and raising funds to help ensure no family faces dementia alone. I'm taking on the challenge for Dementia UK, the specialist dementia nursing charity, and would be grateful for your support.

Your donation, big or small, makes a difference. £33 could fund a new dementia specialist Admiral Nurse to spend an hour helping a family in the community, offering practical solutions and emotional support to cope with their loved one’s distressed behaviour.

Thank you!

Please Help Me
Reach My Goal

Raised

£76 + £16.50 GiftAid

My Goal

£250

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My Achievements

Shared Page

Updated Profile Pic

Added a Blog Post

You've Self Donated!

Received 5 Donations

Reached Fundraising Goal

Increased Target Over £250

My Updates

The Teacup Dragon Sanctuary and other books

Saturday 19th Sep
Well...that's another book finished!! Really cute, heart warming fantasy which is a little different to some of my reads. For the last few years I've been logging the books I've been reading and trying to match or beat the previous year. This year I've found that harder and put a lot of pressure to continue this so I dropped the target and whilst I still log my reads I'm not in a rush to finish them. Saying that...so far this year I've read 39 books which have been a mix of fantasy and many different genres of romance. I'm off now to pick my next read from my extensive collection 🤣

Why this challenge...

Saturday 19th Sep
So some of you will know why Dementia UK is important to me, but for those who don't, here's why.

Since working in healthcare I've always specialised in working with 'older people' which in mental health settings is generally anyone who is 65 years old +

I've worked in care homes, hospitals and the community and my passion has always been for supporting those with dementia. 

Two of my grandparents had it (though only one had a formal diagnosis). 

In university my final placement was with a memory assessment service and admiral nurse team. Getting to see the support offered to families and carers looking after those with dementia and the range of support offered was inspiring and I was lucky to be able to support someone myself as the placement was my management placement. 

Admiral nurses can't do, what they without funding and support from us. And after seeing how much they can offer, if being able to enjoy one of my other passions (reading) whilst raising money can help them...then why not?

Soul Sworn by Kate Dylan

Sunday 13th Sep
So I got this book as an ARC and I've been reading it in between other books. I have some friends who say I'm cheating on my book and should read one at a time 🤣🤣 As it's on my kindle app in the last 2 days I finished the last 20% (3340 to 4147). This is the first book in a duology. Right enjoyed it - premise is that everyone has a soul mate and someone who will kill them and so people employ Reapers to kill that person first. But what happens when your soul mate is also the person who is going to kill you? Well...it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger and doesn't fully answer the question so really looking forward to book 2. I'm now on to another ARC called The Teacup Dragon Sanctuary but I need to get cracking as it releases tomorrow and I'm only 39% into the book 🙈

I can't help my shelf...

Friday 11th Sep
I have worked in dementia now for around 20 years and the care and support provided by Dementia UK is phenomenal and a charity I regularly signpost families and carers to. 

I'm a massive book addict - don't mind admitting that and have on occasions amassed my own physical library (1000+ books) over the years.
Therefore it made sense to combine the two...

So, I'll be posting pics of the books I'm reading, pretty sprayed edges (yes I'm a little bit of a book dragon), and updates on how many pages/books I've read. 

I'm hoping that this might inspire others to pick up a book (whether that's paperback, hardback, ebook, or audio book) and get stuck in and hopefully raise money for a wonderful cause. 

Thank you to my Sponsors

£33

Rachel Mcdonald

Getting the ball rolling and sponsoring myself 🤣

£33

Gill Mcdonald

A very worthy cause - happy reading Rachel x

£10

Naomi Raggio

Good luck Rachel! ❤️