Thame Senior Friendship Centre
Supporting our parents and grandparents in the local community since 1986
The Memories Café
What will your morning at the Memories Café be like?
At our Memories Café you are warmly welcomed into a safe environment to share concerns and worries, but more importantly to enjoy a morning where we laugh, smile and have fun together.
Getting out of the house
Your carer brings you to the Café. When you arrive a volunteer helps you settle in and welcomes you with a hot drink.
The Café provides you with a regular opportunity to socialise away from home; a welcome break for you and those who care for you.
Keeping active and busy
At every session we engage in lots of activities including craft, painting, colouring, wordsearches, dot to dots, dominoes and bingo. Our supportive volunteers help you as much as you need, and provide one to one support if it's required. Each activity session is short as we recognise that your attention span may not be very long these days. We are focussed on finding activities which suit you so that you can have a positive experience with us.
Refreshments
Our volunteers keep you well supplied with cups of tea or coffee and biscuits and there is often cake to share.
Entertainment
Once per month there are visiting musicians to entertain you. On other days you participate in indoor games and gentle seated keep-fit activities.
On special occasions, like Christmas, we encourage everyone to dress up and have more of a party feel at the Café.
Support for Carers
If you come to us on a Tuesday, your carer is welcome to stay for our Carers Hub where carers can chat over a drink and offer friendship and support to each other. Our Dementia Coordinator Karen is also available to chat and offer advice. The Oxfordshire Dementia Advisor also attends monthly to offer support.
Who can come to the Memories Café?
Anyone with dementia can apply to become a member of the Memories Café. Members can join us at Thame Snooker Club on Mondays or Tuesdays from 10am to 1pm. On Mondays we are a space for those with dementia only but on Tuesday we encourage carers to join us too.
Anyone can refer a potential new member – perhaps a GP, community nurse, social prescriber, carer, family member or friend.
Dementia Coordinator
Karen our Dementia Coordinator is a registered Nurse and has been lucky enough to enjoy 40 years in her nursing career. For the latter part of this she worked as a District Nurse. Karen retired from nursing in 2024 but wanted to continue working in a caring role.
Karen gently leads her team of devoted volunteers, and together they have built the Memories Café into a thriving little hub which provides a supportive, stimulating and safe environment for everyone. Her cheerful manner makes everyone feel welcome and included. She is brilliant at spotting people's needs and offering a listening ear. Karen gets involved in everything and can always see the funny side.
Karen has lived in Thame with her family for many years where she is very happy. She loves a challenge and is currently learning sign language. She also enjoys gardening and the theatre.
As a full-time carer for Andrew, Tuesday with the group is a great help to both Andrew and myself. For me, the break from being on point and for Andrew light-hearted time spent in a calm, positive atmosphere. It would be great if there was more of this type of caring help in Thame.
Being a wife and carer of a husband with Alzheimers, I have found the Memories Café at the snooker club a great place to meet with other couples in a similar situation. When you are a carer, you can feel very isolated, and a light-hearted and welcoming meeting place is a life-line.
As a carer, it has been very helpful on a Monday as it gives me three hours to do things for myself. On Tuesdays it ‘s very nice to meet up with those in the same situation as me.