229 x 166mm
176pages
Paperback

Currently over 850,000 people in the UK suffer from Dementia (source Alzheimer’s Society) and yet little attention seems to be paid to the emotional cost to carers and the life experience of those who suffer the disease. In 2014 my Mum was diagnosed with Dementia after a fall and before long all normal life had fractured. Afloat is part memoir and part autobiography. It reflects on the huge sacrifices made by working class parents in the 1960s and 70s. It shines a light on the gaps that have opened up in a system that simply can’t cope, but it offers hope. Hope that perhaps, rather than simply trying to fight against a disease we can come to a new understanding of what it means to be a self and how to accept the losing battle to stay afloat. Told in a series of sequential images interspersed with text only sections there are many moments to reflect and hopefully quite a few to laugh along with.