A dementia specialist who remortgaged her home to open a site in Kirkby four years ago has launched a crowdfunding campaign in a bid to take over and repurpose a decommissioned council building in Huyton.
Rosie Whittington is the director of Me2U, whose site in Westvale offers a pioneering approach for people living with dementia, with flexible, holistic and people-focused care and support.
She told the ECHO she was a teenage carer for her nan, who she said was "physically unwell and suffered greatly with mental health problems". Rosie added: "She'd keep me off school to do the cleaning. When she passed at 17 I realised I was a good carer. We had some really deep meaningful conversations."
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After getting a job cleaning at a day hospital - which Rosie said was "amazing" - she decided to follow her calling. "I was a bright kid, but circumstances took me down a different route. I decided to do my nurses training, completed an access course and got into university."
Rosie had plans in place for the Me2U centre from 2013 and eventually opened the site in Kirkby in 2018 after securing a mortgage on the former GP surgery.
It is now hoping to open a second facility in Huyton and is seeking £300,000 to fund the expansion, calling on the community for support.
You can donate to Me2u's campaign here
Rosie added: "Resources are quite scarce. Coming from the NHS and having to refer to community resources, I found that there was not a great deal out there. Me2U is about creating a resource that is person-centred, and the success so far has been phenomenal.
"As we are now at capacity, with the support of the local authority, we want to replicate that model, get the foundations right and the culture as we want it, and be able to reach more people who need services like ours."
The ECHO has been given a first look at the proposed centre, which is in a decommissioned council building.
The crowdfunding campaign has already been backed by local companies, with Me2u has also organising a number of fundraising events, such as charity dinners, walks up Snowdon, tea dances and yoga events.
If successful, Rosie said further expansion could be on the horizon: "Hopefully we can then roll it out again and again, without growing too quickly and diluting our values and beliefs. The demand is there and we’ve got a fantastic model that works."
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