BROADCASTER Sally Magnusson has told of her mission to ensure that everyone with dementia has access to the “music that mattered” after witnessing the profound effect it had on her own mother.

The BBC presenter set up the charity Playlist for Life four years ago after the death of her mother Mamie from dementia.

The charity’s mission is for everyone with the condition to have access to a ‘playlist for life’, a collection of songs or music on an ipod to help stimulate happy memories.

Sally, 61, said the experience can also provide a bit of light for families and carers in an otherwise difficult journey.

She said: “It’s fun and there is so much about dementia that isn’t fun and is downwards and this is something that is both enjoyable and life affirming to do and that actually makes the journey go upwards.

“It’s about giving everyone with dementia access to the music that’s mattered to them in their lives as a means of helping them feel better and connected.

“It’s going tremendously well. I started it four years ago and we’ve now got a Chief Executive and a small team, we are working in care homes all over the country, we have established community hubs in churches and libraries.

“We are providing tools so that families can work with their loved ones.

“We are just trying to get the message out that it’s not rocket science but music can help.

“It can help loved ones feel more secure, less isolated, more in touch with their own identity and it can help those who are trying to care for someone to feel more connected to them.

“It gives you something to talk about, at the most basic level.

“The Care Inspectorate has now come and said that every home should have access to this.”

The Evening Times has launched a year-long campaign which aims to shine a light on a condition that is predicted will affect one in three of us in future.

Sally was the main speaker at an event at Glasgow’s Mitchell Library yesterday, organised by the Open University in Scotland, looking at the use of music and technology to help patients.

She said: “My sisters and I gradually realised that music was helping mum.

“It wasn’t a playlist at that time.

“We knew every Hogmanay was the same, the Scottish repertoire, some Iceland drinking songs and gradually we were realising if she was fed up and we sang, ‘you cannae shove your granny off a bus’ she was more like herself.

“She knew all the words, this woman who couldn’t speak with dementia.

“It was only after she died, that I thought, I need to tell other families about this.

“I was puzzled, I can tell other families but our family was unusual in singing as much as we did and knowing everything that she loved but what about other people on their own and care homes and how do you scale this up?

“There’s a lot of concerts now in care homes but they come in maybe once every six weeks.

“That’s gave me the idea, based on an idea from America, or making up a playlist on an ipod.”

For more information about Playlist for Life go to www.playlistforlife.org.uk/