Flower power is key to Alzheimer's fundraiser

Cafes around Whangarei are brewing up a lot of goodwill by sprouting forget-me-not flowers to support Alzheimer's Northland.
Several cafes will be giving patrons the option of adding a donation to the cost of their usual cuppa next week  as part of the Alzheimer's Northland Awareness Week.
Staff will be decorated with forget-me-nots and highly-visible collection containers will be on counters.
Clients from the Alzheimer's group's daily day centre programme have made the stylised forget-me-not flowers similar to the Alzheimer's logo.
"We really want people to think about adding something to their daily cuppa for Alzheimer's Northland," the organisation's general manager Ros Martin said.
"We decided to make our containers unmissable - and our activities director, Cheryl Magee, thought of this brilliant idea to make them highly visible on a cafe counter."
Funds collected during the awareness week will help bridge the gap between government funding and the cost of the many services offered by Alzheimer's Northland. It will will also help to replenish cash and items stolen from the society's offices recently.
 The Northland group  looks after more than 300 people with dementia, their families, whanau and carers in Northland each year.
The number of people attending the day-centre programme has increased significantly in the  past  12 months.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, which occurs as a result of physical changes in the structure of the brain, affecting language, memory, perception, physical function and personality. It has no cure and diagnosis is increasing rapidly.