A SPECIALIST dementia care set up to help growing numbers of people with the illness has celebrated its first birthday.

Bradbury Court in Malvern celebrated the anniversary with a summer strawberry tea party.

When it began it had only three residents but all 24 beds were full within a year and it has proved so popular there is now a waiting list.

There are 104,000 people in Worcestershire aged over 65 with 14,200 aged over 85.

The home uses pioneering techniques to help people with dementia such as retro rooms (rooms decorated in a 1950s style to encourage reminiscence). The £3.2 million home was opened last year by Alfred Molina, The Da Vinci Code, Spiderman and Chocolat star when he planted a tree marked with a plaque to commemorate the occasion.

Funding for the home was in part made possible by a local Peace of Mind fundraising appeal chaired by Sir Michael Perry which through donations, grants and sponsorship raised over £266,000, with a further £300,000 given by the Bradbury Foundation after which it is named.

Home manager Charlotte Potter said: “We are thrilled to have cemented such a high reputation for outstanding dementia care in such a short period of time, proven by the fact that most of our residents have found us via word of mouth from the local Malvern community.”

Long-term Malvern local Bob Marriott, whose wife Pat is a resident at Bradbury Court, said: “Bradbury Court shone above all the other places I visited when I had to make the difficult situation to let my wife go into care.”

Friends of the Elderly has pioneered a new approach at Bradbury Court with the introduction of ‘wellbeing workers.’ They provide a holistic approach to care, replacing the task-specific roles – such as ‘healthcare assistants’, ‘domestics’ and ‘activity coordinators’ – traditionally performed by different individuals.