A BRILLIANT young student from Timperley has a new ambition to help find a cure for dementia after working as one of Wythenshawe Hospital's new team of Care Companions.

Loreto Grammar School sixth form student Sophia Liu, who got 10 A*s and one A in her GCSEs, has now been nominated by Wythenshawe Hospital to work as an ambassador for their ground-breaking Care Companions team.

Sophia's work has included making a heart felt documentary recording her experiences on the wards and is a central part of Wythenshawe's presentation after being shortlisted for a national prize in the prestigious Nursing Times Awards in the 'Care of Older People' category

Before working at Wythenshawe Hospital, initially as part of her research for her Extended Project Qualification on dementia care, Sophia had always wanted to be a doctor but now she plans an even greater challenge.

She said: “I always wanted to be a doctor but after working with patients with dementia at Wythenshawe, I now want to go into drug research. Being a doctor is a wonderful vocation, but I feel I could make a more lasting contribution by trying to find a cure. That's why I have switched from wanting to read medicine to natural sciences.”

Sophia added: “It can be a harrowing experience for us to see people who were obviously vibrant and much happier, often being trapped inside some terrifying cycle of false memories and nightmarish visions. But though it can be disturbing, it is also incredibly rewarding and makes you appreciate that good mental health especially in older people is both precious and precarious.

“Yet if it can be difficult for us it will be worse for their relatives. At least we can be dispassionate and are not constantly regretting missing the person they once were.

“The good news is that we can make some difference, through talking, chatting and simply being a young and friendly face that the older people with dementia enjoy meeting and chatting to.”

One of the initiatives in the Care Companions scheme extends the relationship to even younger children from local primary schools