THE double edged sword of social media has come up trumps for a small but extremely effective charity from North Yorkshire. We featured a story a few weeks ago about Dementia Forward providing awareness training for 200 taxi drivers across Richmondshire after concerns were raised by a carer. Particularly in rural areas where public transport is limited taxis can play a very big part and being more aware of the issues for people with dementia has to be a huge bonus.

So we make the big leap to New York, through Linkedin dementia volunteers read about the scheme and realised how important it could be in the tricky streets of the Big Apple. Obviously the situation is different to ours but patently as necessary.Training was given over the internet and hopefully that is being distributed to cabbies throughout the city.

Spectator did think how interesting to go and see how it is being put into practice. Not possible obviously and not just because of Covid and restrictions on travelling to America. The Ed is notoriously unhelpful in funding nipping over the Atlantic to research follow ups on stories.

Inevitably then the internet is the key. Dementia Forward, while it has the county council contract for dementia support, is a tiny charity so to be able to spread the word in such an impressive way is quite an achievement.

They were astonished to see just how global the world-wide web has proved to be and the value it has added in getting out their all important message. The hope is social media will be used more and more to get the good stuff across, there is no doubt many campaigns and crucial developments can benefit , they just need support.