A CHURCH service aimed at people living with dementia and their carers is being held in Stockton.

'Don’t bottle it up’ is the theme for this year’s Dementia Awareness Week, which is encouraging those affected to be more open about the challenges and stresses faced.

Dr Anne Bell, from Roseberry Park Hospital, in Middlesbrough, will give an address at the ecumenical service at the Church of St John the Baptist, Durham Road, Stockton, at 7.30pm on Wednesday, May 21.

Reverend Richard Bradshaw, mental health chaplain at Roseberry Park Hospital said the service would explore what it meant to live well with dementia, reflect on the experiences of family and professional carers, as well as people who are coping with the condition.

“Carers have to bear burdens of stress and painful emotions as they watched loved ones gradually lose their sense of who they are," he said.

"We will remember those whose own memories are failing, think about how to be alongside and support them, and give thanks that even when we no longer know who we are, we are always known to God."