Jack Vernon founded Dementia Life after his mum was diagnosed with young-onset Alzheimer's. He didn't set out to start an organisation. He set out to find his family the kind of support that, it turned out, didn't really exist — real help built on lived experience, from people in the same situation. He couldn't find that network, so he built it. Dementia Life is a support community for the families of those diagnosed.

Today he cares for his mum day to day, working from his parents' home so there's someone there throughout the day. Most of what Dementia Life does comes directly out of that: the things no one warned him about, the conversations no one prepares you for, the gap between what families are told and what they actually need.

He's not a clinician, and Dementia Life isn't a medical service. What he offers is the other thing — the lived side. Through Dementia Life he runs free online community groups for families navigating a diagnosis, leads the Family Impact Study gathering evidence of how families are being let down, and writes openly about caring for a parent with dementia: the admin, the grief, the small absurd moments, the anger. Jack wants to make sure no family has to work out dementia alone the way his did.

Jack knows that having a parent with dementia is one of the hardest experiences you'll face — especially when the current system seems to hand you a leaflet and leave you to deal with it. He remembers the moment he was told his mum had dementia. As with most important conversations in his life, it took place in his parents' kitchen. His mum was crying uncontrollably. She had been a carer for people with dementia his entire life — she knew exactly what was coming. Jack had never seen her like this and didn't know what to do. Going forward, other people having that conversation in their own kitchens will have somewhere to turn.

You can connect with Jack on LinkedIn, or find the Dementia Life community here.

To get a raw, unfiltered view of what it's like to have a parent with dementia, Jack writes on Substack.