How Memory Lane Games are trying to help those with dementia

Bruce Elliott and Peter Quayle tell Heather Martin about how they came up with an app game to help families struggling with dementia

Among the most popular games on the app is ‘Finish The Lyrics’ (Memory Lane Games)

I know, let’s call it Dementia Day,” Quayle said to Elliott. Or maybe it was the other way around. But when Elliott mentioned it to his 88-year-old mother back in Canada, she protested: “You think I’ve got dementia?” In the end, they called their digital health care app – winner of a KPMG “Tech Innovator” award – Memory Lane Games. Lucky Elliott’s mum was still watching out for him.

Mrs Elliott was “sharp as a tack.” But it was a different story for 90-year-old Mrs Quayle. She’d seen off cancer and was “built of the good stuff, with a heart function better than me”, her son says, but her memory had been going for a while. “I’m a computer scientist, no medical training; you do your best, chat about things, look for common threads – we can talk about the cats we had when we were young, even though she’s forgotten what was on TV today, or what she had to eat.”

By 2025, it is predicted that more than 1 million people in the UK will have dementia, with experts warning that cases will triple across the world by 2050. Families are taking on ever greater caring responsibilities. There are currently no prescriptions without side effects.