Thirteen years ago, Tibbs Dementia Foundation started with very little: a small budget, a handful of trusted friends, and a belief that people living with dementia deserved better support than they were getting. That story has now been published in the Journal of Dementia Care (January/February 2026 issue), one of the sector’s leading publications.
The back-of-an-envelope beginning
Margaret-Anne and Sarah met through the Bedford branch of the Alzheimer’s Society, where Margaret-Anne was voluntary chair and Sarah worked as an employee. In 2008, inspired by an early music therapy project, they recruited music therapist Jeni Melia to run a new group: Music 4 Memory. When changes elsewhere meant the group couldn’t continue as it had been, the three of them decided to build something of their own instead.
Tibbs Dementia Foundation was formed in February 2013, with a budget Margaret-Anne describes as having been worked out almost on the back of an envelope. Today it runs 53 groups with 80 volunteers and supports hundreds of people living with dementia, and their families, across Bedfordshire.
What thirteen years has taught us
The Journal of Dementia Care is read by professionals, researchers and organisations across the sector. Being featured gives Tibbs a chance to share what it’s learned with people doing similar work elsewhere, and to make the case for dementia care built on connection as well as clinical support.
The article sets out what Margaret-Anne and Sarah believe has made Tibbs work: that people living with dementia are not defined by their diagnosis, that support works best when it’s shaped with people rather than handed to them, and that community, even when it feels a bit muddled, is what helps people keep living well.
One Tibbs member and family carer summed it up in the article: “Tibbs is helping me to be myself for as long as possible.”
Tibbs is grateful to the Journal of Dementia Care for the chance to tell its story, and to everyone who has been part of building it over the past thirteen years.
