Lisbellaw man with dementia meets agencies who helped find him

by Gráinne Connolly

Almost 2 months ago, on Tuesday 25th July Bob Maher went missing in the Belle Isle area of Fermanagh. 

Bob has dementia and is known to get confused because of this, therefore his family were worried when they couldn't find him. 

After appealing on social media, various agencies and services searching for him, Bob was found after 22 hours. 

Yesterday, the Maher family met with all the different agencies and services that helped in the searches, at the Carrybridge hotel in Lisbellaw. 

They were also joined by members from Dementia NI who gave an insightful talk about living with dementia. 

Chief Inspector Clive Beatty was the first to address the Maher family and Bob who he described as a "seasoned sailor, who unfortunately was blown off his course that night and didn't make his way home". 

He said he is extremely thankful for their police search advisor and all the support services: 

"The search advisor attached to the police is a specialist in this particular area and helps us co-ordinate so that we can, where possible return people's loved ones as quickly as possible. 

"Our colleagues from the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service, North West Mountain Rescue, Lifeboat Community Search and Rescue, and most importantly the community all helped to bring Mr Maher back to his loved ones within 22 hours. 

"This must have been a very, very traumatic time for him and I admire his bravery and his strength, something told him he was going to be safe."

(Bob, wife Dorothy and Chief Inspector Clive Beatty)

One of the founding members of Dementia NI, John McErlean spoke of his experience with dementia as he was diagnosed at the age of 52 and has been living with it for 6 years. 

He said: 

"Dementia is not a thing that affects older people in general, it affects anyone, anyone can have dementia from any age.

"Dealing with dementia every day is the uphill struggle, I've been living with that for 6 years now. I know about the stigma of dementia, I know about people coming up to me and saying John there's nothing wrong with you. 

"The general public don't know about it." 

John got involved with the charity to give people with dementia a voice and let people know of the struggles that go in hand with living with dementia. 

His struggles seem similar to Bob's, as when Q Radio asked about his own personal experience of going missing, he said he only has some memories: 

"I couldn't tell you the full details of it, I have little bits of memory but it's gone away. 

"I know what has happened but I don't think about."

To conclude the evening, Bob's daughter Christine thanked all the services and support they received at the time: 

"As soon as we phoned, they all arrived like the A-Team and more and more people and more and more organisations kept arriving. 

"You have that feeling that they're not going to stop until he is found and they didn't stop until he was found. 

"We can never explain and you can never explain unless you've been there yourself that feeling when everyone starts arriving and you realise you're not alone, thank you."

(Front row: Chief Inspector Clive Beatty, Dorothy, Bob and Christine Maher, Back row: representatives from various support services)