Heswall born artist Christian Furr has donated three pieces of his own artwork to Hoylake Cottage to thank the centre for caring for his father.
Staff at the Hoylake-based care home have been looking after his father Peter, who has vascular dementia, for over five years, firstly as a patient at Sandhills Day Centre and in the last year as a resident in Hoylake Cottage.
Christian Furr said: “‘Dementia is a devastating illness. I was really impressed with the level of care my father Peter Furr and his fellow patients are receiving from the team at Hoylake Cottage and also the way the building is designed with lots of natural light. I am delighted to donate three of my Artworks to Hoylake Cottage. I hope they help to encourage a feeling of wellbeing and a smile for the patients and incredibly hard working staff.”
Residents and their families will be able to see two paintings, ‘English Rose’ and ‘Battenberg-Pink’ hanging in the dementia unit on the top floor, and a third, ‘Fluorescent Rose’ will be in Sandhills Day Centre all in the permanent collection of Hoylake Cottage.
At just 28, Christian Furr was the youngest artist commissioned to paint an official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, recognition of his enormous talent early in his career. He has displayed his artwork at countless exhibitions and curated exhibitions including Liverpool Love at Liverpool’s World Museum in 2014. Sandhill’s day care manager, Sarah Cliffe, has over 22 years’ experience working with people who have dementia. She said: “Christian’s donations are a fantastic addition to our day centre and nursing home. We believe that life doesn’t need to stop when you have been diagnosed with any form of dementia. We want to enable all our clients and residents to live well with Dementia”.
Sandhills and Hoylake Cottage have recently launched ‘Thank you for the memories’ a fundraising campaign to raise money to build a ground breaking Reminiscence Village. The new project will incorporate a full array of reminiscence rooms ranging from a bank, post office, tea room, florist chandlers and a cinema room enabling our patients to continue going about a daily routine in a safe and dignified environment.
