Not the van… but Jan!
At Outside the Box, we are delighted to welcome the wonderful Jan Laing to our staff team. She will be working as a development worker for our Food Buddies Borders project, where she will be developing peer support for people with dementia and for carers, with a focus on aspects of food and keeping well. We spent some time getting to know her and finding out some interesting facts about her life, as well as why she is excited to work on the Food Buddies Borders project:
- Jan has a van called Trevor (pictured) and he is the only man in her life! Jan and Trevor go on lots of adventures around Scotland together and he has changed her life.
- Jan has had experience of dementia within her own family and was surprised at how hard it can be to recognise the signs. It becomes obvious post diagnosis and you wonder how you didn’t spot it earlier.
- The thing Jan is most looking forward to in her job is working with older people who are isolated and supporting them, she explained that people will often say they’re fine but they’re not always and she wants to help.
- Jan takes on challenges- she drives a very big camper-van across Scotland on her own, and her latest challenge is beginning her new job with Food Buddies!
- Jan also volunteers with an animal charity in India.
We are very excited to be working with Jan and can’t wait to see all the great work she’ll be doing with Food Buddies.