Jenny takes on ‘Swimming Down Dementia’ challenge to honour uncle Vincent

Jenny Boanca (23) is undertaking the Swimming Down Dementia Challenge to honour her uncle Vincent Brown, who was diagnosed with frontal lobe (frontotemporal) dementia over two years ago.

It is a progressive form of dementia and Vincent, a former St. Columb’s College teacher in his 60s, moved into a care home a few weeks ago.

His illness has been tough on his whole family, not least his wife and Jenny’s aunt, Pauline, who has had limited visiting due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Recently, Jenny was scrolling through Instagram when she saw an advert for Alzheimer’s Research UK’s Swimming Down Dementia challenge.

She told the ‘Journal’: “When we were younger, as Vincent was off work during the summer, he would have taken us hiking and camping and swimming. So, I thought, what better way to honour him than this?”

Jenny laughed as she revealed she wasn’t quite aware what she was taking on.

“When applying, you have to enter a fundraising goal and a distance, I put in £300, thinking I’d never get it and 50km, as I’m an idiot and didn’t realise just how far it was!”

Her fundraiser has been a huge success and she has made over £900 so far. Earlier this week, she had completed over 14km of her swim, which she undertakes at Foyle Arena every Monday to Friday morning.

She - as well as her aunt Patricia- are delighted with the success of the fundraiser.

“I ring her with updates every day, When someone is diagnosed with an illness like dementia, you can feel so helpless. But you hope that you’re doing something good when you take part in something like this. For me too, it’s a way of staying close to him.”

You can support Jenny’s fundraiser by logging on to https://swim.thetreblechallenge.org/pages/vincent-s-swim