Kind-hearted builders' classy gesture to Sunderland charity North East Dementia Care

Kind-hearted builders have provided free labour to construct a new path for a great local charity.
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North East Dementia Care (NEDC) cares for dementia sufferers, whom they pick up and drop off, giving their carers a break. It has multiple facilities at their base in Pennywell Neighbourhood Centre on Portsmouth Road.

NEDC was founded in 2019 by chairperson Sandra Falkner. She cared for her husband Billy who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in his 50s and died in 2015 aged 67.

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The charity has an adjoining shop to financially support its efforts, but the shop was badly in need of a new path.

The team from M & S Civils carried out the work at North East Dementia Care free of charge.The team from M & S Civils carried out the work at North East Dementia Care free of charge.
The team from M & S Civils carried out the work at North East Dementia Care free of charge.

Sandra’s son, Scott Falkner, contacted groundworks company M & S Civils, run partners Mark Higgins and Scott Leather, to price up a new eight-metre path. However, the company wouldn’t hear of taking money to carry out the work.

Sandra said: “Our Scott was talking to Mark about his (Scott’s) dad and the charity. Mark’s mam has dementia too. He came to the centre to have a look and he absolutely loved it.

“He had a chat with me and our manager Deborah Watson. He said he would do it for us and we would only have to pay for the materials. He rang Scott on the night and said he’d spoken to his business partner and they would do it all, plus a donation.

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“Now that we have the new entrance we can open the shop more easily. Hopefully that will make some money for the centre. We’re so grateful”

North East Dementia Care founder Sandra Falkner is delighted with the new path, laid free of charge by M & S Civils.North East Dementia Care founder Sandra Falkner is delighted with the new path, laid free of charge by M & S Civils.
North East Dementia Care founder Sandra Falkner is delighted with the new path, laid free of charge by M & S Civils.

Mark Higgins told the Echo: “Scott (Falkner) is a friend of mine. I’ve known him since school. He phoned for a price to get the job done for the shop. I said I would pop down and have a look. I did that and said we would do it without charge. My mam has Alzheimer’s.

“I phoned my business partner and he agreed we would sort it out. We’ve got a couple of lads in on a weekend. The lads did the work in a day.

“We were pleased to help these people. They do a cracking job.”

The shop is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 4.30pm.

Readers may wish to know that the Echo contacted M & S Civils – not the other way round.

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