Athy woman has book launch in the Mansion House
Lindsay with her parents Ned and Margaret Martin
A physiotherapist, and now author, was feted in the Mansion House in Dublin recently as she launched an Irish language version of her book to explain dementia to children.
Lindsay Martin-Fenlon - “I’m still trying to keep my maiden name!” – was invited by the Lord Mayor Emma Blain to launch the book ‘Melting Moments’ to help parents deal with the difficult path of explaining the condition of elderly loved ones to the younger generation.
Ms Martin-Fenlon is a chartered Physiotherapist from Tankardstown who works in private practise at the Droimnín Nursing Home in Stradbally where she has seen first hand the difficulty the progressive disease for which there is still no known cure.
“Because of working in the nursing home and seeing the challenges of dementia I did my Masters in dementia treatment during Covid,” she said.
“I have five young children, and when I was doing all the studying at home they were asking me hundreds of questions, even though we haven’t any experience of dementia, and I got the idea for the book because there must be loads of children out there who have,” she said.
“The first edition in English was actually launched in September, and it even made the Irish Times Best Sellers List.
“All the profits go to Dementia Ireland who took it out to international conferences where lots of people were interested and looking for a translation, so now, after this, I think I can take it to other countries in other languages. There has been interest from Norway, France, Germany, but because it is in a rhyming format we have to get it specially translated to maintain this.
“I chose Irish because so many dementia suffers can tend to revert to their first language, and in in Ireland that’s what it is. Eoin McDiarmada from TG4 did this translation because I only have the ‘cúpla focail’ and he was fabulous. The money raised from this will help fund the specialised translations, and it’s going pretty well so far.
“We’re getting great support on Facebook and I’ve got lovely messages from [Minister] Dara Colleary and Daniel O’Donnell.
“I’ve had great feedback, so I’m hoping it will be a success. Where better to start with explaining dementia but at the start with children".
