A Highland pensioner is getting ready to film a rap video on her 85th birthday to help raise awareness of the challenges of elderly care in the north.
Jill Beavitt, from the Scoraig peninsula near Ullapool, will perform her rap on Wednesday in the hope of going viral online.
Her performance at Ullapool Village Hall will be captured on video before being posted on social media.
The pensioner was inspired to compose the one-minute 15-second rap after attending a community meeting about the closure of the local nursing care home Mo Dhachaidh, which is Gaelic for “my home”.
More than 50 people turned out to the meeting in Ullapool on Sunday to discuss what action might be taken to save the home.
For Mrs Beavitt, the journey from the remote off-grid community of Scoraig to Ullapool took over an hour, including a boat trip.
‘Care might be looming’
A retired social worker in her own right, the 84-year-old is only too aware of the challenges facing the sector.
Speaking ahead of her birthday, she said: “I had the idea of the rap as a way to raise awareness of the situation because I feel very strongly about elderly care being that age myself.
“Having been a social worker for the elderly in Ullapool before Mo Dhachaidh was built, I experienced how heartbreaking it was to send people far away for care.
“It is my 85th birthday on the day we perform. Somehow it seems awfully old, much older than 84, and therefore care might be looming.”
The pensioner’s campaign has received widespread local attention with fellow supporters joining in to lend their voices.
Ullapool resident Tim Gauntlett is among seven concerned locals joining the chorus during her upcoming performance.
As Sunday’s meeting ended, Mr Gaunrlett – who previously worked in a hospice – called out “we want to die with dignity”.
Deeply affected by his statement, Mrs Beavitt wrote the rap before asking her friend Anne Wood to accompany her on fiddle.
‘We all want to die with dignity’
Mr Gauntlett said as people get older, they should be able to live with the assurance that a certain level of care will be made available to them and their families.
He said: “I am no longer working for a living, I was previously a psychotherapist. My experience of social care is with a hospice, which is most certainly a place where all planning and delivery of care is with the emphasis upon enabling a person to die with dignity, in the presence of their family, supported by professional, caring staff.
“That should be the model. We should all live with the assurance that as we move closer to this final stage of our lives, that our services are professional and have the ability to support us and our families, to the very end, of which a nursing home is part of that spectrum of care.
“We all want to die with dignity so that we can face our fears and anxieties with a minimum of pain.”
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