“Love to Move is like an awakening of enjoyment”

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Nikki’s Story

Mark Gettinby is the owner of Home Instead in Havant who specialise in care at home for the elderly.  Nikki was working for Home Instead when she attended a Love to Move taster session. Being passionate about helping people living with dementia and following the taster session, Mark and Nikki both completed their Love to Move training in July 2020 and were ready to set up their community Love to Move group by September.

Nikki described ‘First timers’ to the session as having closed body language and being suspicious or ‘not sure’, but within 2-3 weeks that completely changed. “One chap comes in a wheelchair and on the 3rd session he picked up his wife’s arms and danced with her! Another participant couldn’t clap and after 3 weeks was clapping again.”

Within weeks there is a difference!

Feedback from families has been unreservedly positive and carers and loved ones enjoy it as much as the participants. “They get just as much from the session as the people they bring. Different people’s skills and abilities flourish in different sections of the sessions.”It was so successful that they soon had a waiting list.

Nikki is now working as an NHS Dementia Coach, supporting those who have not left the house in a long time to engage in the community Love to Move sessions, so Naomi from Home Instead and Rosanna are now running the sessions.  

Naomi said, “it is a vibrant, busy class. We have found that the attendees have greatly improved their fine motor skills and language/memory recall. The community centre manager always comments: ‘This is miracle work! Some of the people start the class barely able to talk and within weeks there is a difference.’”

“There is one lady in particular who we feel has shown amazing growth during her time with us. When she started, she didn’t say a word and couldn’t do many of the activities and now she is fully engaged, tries really hard and is a regular contributor to the alphabet activity.”

Effective link between the care sector and medical services

Nikki is full of praise for Naomi and Rosanna “having such warmly positive deliverers is essential to the successful running of this class” and she feels that the achievements in the class are in part due to the effective link between the care sector and medical services.  “Both Home Instead and the GP practices are keen to keep people safe and socially connected whilst living at home”.

“As a Dementia Coach having a class to direct patients towards is a fantastic way of encouraging social engagement and purposeful safe physical activity. Having Love to Move strengthens the ‘umbrella of care and safety net of support’ for patients with memory concerns within this area.”

Improving abilities and cognition pathways through Love to Move is a very important element in keeping participants happy and well.

Nikki says “Love to Move is like an awakening of enjoyment – Delivering it is the most incredible high, richly, joyously positive. You really change people’s emotional state – getting smiles back and engagement has been a complete privilege”.

Nikki Shepherd, Love to Move deliverer and NHS Lead Health & Wellbeing Specialist Dementia Coach & Educator, Havant & Waterlooville Primary Care Network.

Could you train to deliver?

If you’d like to train to become a Love to Move deliverer or would like to link up with your local deliverer, please get in touch with us by emailing [email protected]


“It’s given them their independence back; it’s given them their lives back.”

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New Love to Move sessions in Essex and London are having a big impact. Liz, a staff member at Peaceful Place said; “it’s given them their independence back, it’s given them their lives back. They have increased confidence, self-assurance, mental recall, and they are more emotionally positive. Their finger co-ordination is growing which means it is having a knock-on effect on their art and their creativity as a result. People are joining in with things in general more because their self-esteem is growing.”

Sport for Confidence

Sport for Confidence is a social enterprise organisation that utilises sport and physical activity as a preventative measure to enhance a person’s health and well-being. The Occupational Therapists and Coaches have trained as Love to Move deliverers and have set up Love to Move sessions in Leisure Centres across Essex and London.

The session has been running for 6-8 months now and many of the participants are bussed in from an activity centre called Peaceful Place, which aims to give people living with dementia, often diagnosed with young-onset dementia, sport, and exercise at least twice per week.
There are 24 participants in the session ranging in age from 35 up to 90 years old and most of them are up on their feet dancing by the end of the session.

Liz who works at Peaceful Place explained that when her group return after a Love to Move session, they chat more and socialise more with each other, the mood is ‘upbeat’ but also calmer in general. She said, “it’s not just uplifting for them [the participants], it lifts the staff up as well – we’ve seen the journey they have made.”

Life-changing Improvements

Megan, an Occupational Therapist, and the lead deliverer for the session today, said; “I’ve noticed a difference in their physical ability and cognition, they have the ability to follow along better and do more movements.”

Pat has been coming to the session with her carer for 4 weeks and has progressed from refusing to come into the room in her wheelchair on week one, to taking part for some of the session in her wheelchair in week two, to now walking through the door without a wheelchair and fully participating.

Jo has young onset dementia and Huntingdon’s disease and has been coming to the sessions for 6 months. Before, she was struggling to keep her arms and legs still, but now she has more control over them. Her confidence has grown so much, she participates fully in the whole session and even gets up to dance in the centre of the circle. After the session, Jo told Louise ‘I love it here, I love coming here!” When asked how Love to Move makes her feel, she said ‘happy!’ with a massive beaming smile.

Louise Roberts said “It was an absolute joy to see the Sport for Confidence Love to Move session – the participants and staff were so excited to share their experience of Love to Move with me and it was a truly overwhelming experience to hear what they had to share. Some participants said that they could not describe in words how much it meant to them and just wanted to thank me. This is exactly why we do what we do at the British Gymnastics Foundation. It was an honour to be there”.  

Sport for Confidence hope to set up more Love to Move sessions over the coming months and have now trained most of their staff to deliver the programme.

Contact Details
For more information about Love to Move please contact: Louise Roberts on 07739512197 or email [email protected]