March 2024 - Advocacy letter, CLBDI Talks Episode 3, springtime plans, and more...

Hello Lewy Warriors,

Happy Easter to all who celebrate! We hope that you are having a wonderful holiday weekend full of friends, family, and relaxation. We're taking it easy this weekend but we still need to keep you updated on all things CLBDI so welcome to the March blog update! It was a busy month for us and we have a few things to recap so let's get right into it.

First and foremost, our dementia advocacy letter template is now available on our site! We wanted to offer something to our community that will start the conversation about the current and future problems facing dementia and, more specifically, Lewy Body Dementia patients, caretakers, medical professionals, and society as a whole. We worked with our advisory board, including cognitive neurologist and LBD researcher Dr. Pasternak, to craft something that speaks to the urgency we feel. Use it as is or make it your own. You can visit the LBD Resources page of our site to download the letter in plaintext, Word document, and PDF.

Secondly, we are excited to share that we will be announcing the first "CLBDI Community Walk" of 2024 in the coming weeks. We're definitely looking forward to getting back out on the road and meeting more Lewy Warriors and community members. Want to be notified right away? Keep an eye on our Facebook feed as we'll be announcing there first. As with previous events, this will be free to attend and all are welcome to join. More information will be available very soon.

Thirdly, the next episode of the "CLBDI Talks Interview Series" is now live on our YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/Ux2y-8m2N28) and website. In this episode, we sat down with author, artist, caretaker, and Lewy Warrior Janet Johnstone to talk about her and her husband's Lewy journey, caretaking, art and dementia, her three-part "Lewy Who?" series of books, and more. It was an excellent conversation and we thank her for taking the time to speak with us. You can watch the video embedded above or visit our YouTube channel. Be sure to like, subscribe, and let us know what you think in a comment. We're working on the next episode already and can't wait to release more throughout the year.

Some of you may have noticed that our speaking event at the Clay & Glass Museum this month was postponed by the venue. Don't worry, we're working on rescheduling for the fall and hope to get out there again. We apologize if you were hoping to come out and hear us speak in March. We have some more speaking events in the works, and will be announcing them in the coming months. There will be plenty more chances to come out, hear us speak, and support CLBDI.

Lastly, I wanted to say a belated but very resounding Happy Birthday to our founder Carol. I am so proud of all we've accomplished with CLBDI and her character, drive, and determination. It's been an honour to be a part of this and I wish her all the best on this next trip around the sun.

That is all from us this month. See you in April.

All the best,
Joe