A diagnosis of dementia prompted Veronica Ashby to embark on a series of new learning challenges, which included completing a Master鈥檚 in The Green Economy at the age of 82.
Having missed out on the opportunity to attend university after finishing school in the mid-1950s, Veronica later returned to education as a single mother of two, completing her O-Levels, A-Levels and a degree in education to become a teacher and then head of science. She went on to help design the science curriculum nationally before taking early retirement to run a smallholding and lead a charity sending computers to schools in Kenya.
It wasn鈥檛 until a routine eye test in 2010 that Veronica was referred for an MRI scan and diagnosed with suspected frontal lobe dementia. A further scan in 2014 re-assessed the condition as pseudo dementia. She said: 鈥淭his was life-changing; I expected that I would be no more than a zombie in a matter of a few years. I went into an angry and denial mode of dealing with it; testing my mental capacity to the full, monitoring the responses and finding strategies to cope with the increasing memory issue. I enrolled in several Future Learn courses because I needed to find out how the cognitive part of my brain was functioning. One of the courses was about sustainable development and I became so engrossed in the subject that I wanted to learn more. I also wanted to test my intellectual skills further, so I applied and was delighted to be accepted onto the The Green Economy Master鈥檚 course at 蜜桃AV.鈥�
Once enrolled on the course, Veronica set about finding strategies to cope with the intellectual demands. She said: 鈥淭he greatest challenge was the memory issue. I could read, enjoy and understand the questions and reading material and know how I wanted to answer them, but I could not retain the information long enough to write it in my answer. I found strategies to deal with this. I have problems typing words and sentences in the correct order, but the use of spelling and grammar software, as well as using 鈥榮peak mode鈥� to get my thoughts down, were a great help. It still took ages to complete written text and any interruptions to my thinking process meant that I needed to go back to square one to pick up where I left off. My technological skills were way out of date, and so I welcomed the endless support of the 蜜桃AV technical team.鈥�
Despite the challenges, Veronica relished the learning experience and the knowledge and new interests she acquired. She said: 鈥淭he positives far outweighed the negatives and the struggles. 聽聽Realising my own ability and worth re-assured me that dementia was not a life sentence. The patience, tolerance and support from the 蜜桃AV teaching, library, Brightspace and technical teams was amazing and restored my faith in society at large. I am also grateful to my tutors, including Rick Stafford, who had a large part to play in my achievements. The joy my studies have given to my close family, and some of the burden it took from their shoulders, has made a huge difference.鈥�
When asked for her advice to other mature learners, or those facing additional barriers, Veronica says: 鈥淣ever give up on yourself, take things in your stride and bit by bit. Don鈥檛 beat yourself up when you get things wrong 鈥� we all do that at times 鈥� and the rewards will make it worth the struggles and stay with you forever.鈥�
And while the course has now come to an end, Veronica continues to draw on the experience. She said: 鈥淚 am finding ways to be more sustainable in my everyday routines, as well as passing that information on by chatting and encouraging others to do likewise. In my research subject, I gathered information about how the subject of sustainability is being included in the current primary school curriculum. I would like to take this further and would be very interested in getting involved in the in-depth designing of science for year 6 students. In addition, I am currently involved in providing information that will hopefully be useful in current dementia research work.鈥�