Maggie Bennett: She might have retired from the successful Island Healthcare business she built with husband Nigel over many decades, but now in her late 60s, Maggie Bennett has certainly not given up on her passion for working with the local caring community. With no intention of putting her feet up, she now regularly puts in 40-50 volunteer hours a week at the groundbreaking Parklands project in Cowes, the busy dementia resource centre that she was instrumental in setting up.

If you ask what drew her into the business of caring, Maggie Bennett has one word, and that is “family”.

She explains that she and her younger brother were brought up in and around a massive extended family – many of them living in the same street – next to the shipyard in Cowes.

She recalls it as “the happiest childhood imaginable” – with lots of freedom but also lots of involvement with older family members.

As a netball-mad teenager at grammar school she wasn’t especially academic and if she thought at all of a career, it was to become a nurse, because she loved helping people.

Life took her in other directions though, and by 16 she was just keen to get into any job, starting in a receptionist and accounts role and then moving to the data prep department at Plessey Radar.

After moving to the mainland with her first husband in 1979, she worked for an insurance and mortgage broker. Tragically her husband was killed at the age of just 24 in a freak lightning strike accident, which left Maggie to seek out a new direction. So she used her skills to organise events, do book-keeping, and provide secretarial support for a couple of clients.

Key moment

It was one of these clients who became key to her finding her way into her true path in the care sector. He had asked her to provide support in PAYE, banking and book-keeping in a newly opened Residential Home in Northamptonshire – but six months later she was appointed as manager of the place.

At that time, her only knowledge and philosophy when it came to providing care and support, was simple but profound.

“Whatever we did to support people had to be kind – and I had to be happy for my own family to live there if the need arose”.

Many years later, Maggie got to test out that ethos when her own mum moved into Tile House on the Island and spent her last 18 months living happily there.

“In all of the homes I have ever been involved in, my fundamental aim is to create a family feeling, and a place where people feel comfortable and safe” she says.

In that first manager job, she threw herself into every training course available, joined local professional organisations and gradually built her knowledge. She also put a lot of time into asking residents and families what they wanted and needed, rather than operating from an ivory tower.

Taking a risk

All this learning came into play when Maggie returned to the Island in 1992 with Nigel and their two young children.

She had persuaded her employer to purchase Brighstone Grange, then known as Pitt Place, where she became the registered manager. Northbrooke House then Highfield House quickly followed, and all three homes still remain in Island Healthcare’s portfolio, along with Westview House, Tile House and Hazel Lodge.

In 2001, when her employer became ill and retired, Maggie and Nigel were offered the opportunity to purchase Highfield House – a huge decision for the family.

Having weighed up the pros and cons, they re-mortgaged and purchased it in 2003 , starting Island Healthcare Ltd, and continuing to operate Northbrooke House and then Brighstone Grange, on a lease.

“The risk was huge” recalls Maggie, “but we were confident in the relationships we had built with the people we now employed, knowing they would work hard with us and do everything possible to build success”.

And as it has turned out, a few of those people continue to work for Island Healthcare today, more than 30 years later.

Dementia issues

As time went by, Island Healthcare was being asked to provide care and support for more and more people with a diagnosis of dementia, which Maggie says made her conscious of the growing need for this type of care across the country – and particularly on the Island with its ageing demographic.

This resulted in a change in direction of travel for Island Healthcare, and she sought out specialist training for herself and the manager of Highfield House, where her plan was to develop the first dementia specialist service in their group. That led to a course with a Dr Gemma Jones, one of the recognised leaders in her field.

“Every night on the ferry home, my colleague and I were so full of ideas and plans for making improvements to the environment in the home” said Maggie. She was also keen to bring Dr Gemma to the Island to share the learning with everyone else in their organisation – and to others in the IW Residential Care Homes Association, of which Maggie was the Chair.

Dr Gemma mentioned that she was running an Alzheimer Café in Farnborough – which was operated like a proper café, where people could just drop in, meet with friendly volunteers and learn more about the disease and the psychological and emotional factors affecting people with dementia and their carers.

Maggie immediately decided this was something the Isle of Wight just had to have, and promptly started her campaign for a café in early 2009. Dr Gemma came to the Island that year and ran a course for 24 staff from the residential and nursing home sectors. Meanwhile, Maggie met with the Alzheimer Society, who enabled them to start up under their banner, and the first of the cafes opened at Newport in April that year.

Standing room only

As the cafe grew, it attracted a wide range of health professionals as well those with a diagnosis and their families – so much so that at times, they would run out of chairs!

“The gathering momentum was quite scary” Maggie recalls. “So many needed the café and appreciated the opportunity to meet together.”

Which is why – thanks to an army of tireless fundraisers and volunteers – the Island now has seven of them, all providing a vital service to Islanders.

The growth of the Alzheimer Café and the Dementia Awareness Partnership with Carers IW and Healthwatch, led to a suggestion by Laura Gaudion, the Director of Adult Social Care at the IW Council, that the voluntary sector lead on the IW Dementia Strategy. It was published in 2022 and is now in the process of being refreshed. St Mary’s hospital also has it own training programme based upon the work of Dr Gemma Jones, which has proven to be a true success story.

With a massive 29.3% of the Isle of Wight population now aged over 65 (compared to the national total of 18.6%), this is a growing issue for the Island community.

All of Island Healthcare’s six homes and its care in the community hub have worked to achieve a “dementia specialist” designation.

Awards and plaudits are one thing, but for Maggie it always comes back to creating that “family feeling”.

“We do our best to create happy, helpful, and vibrant places where people feel safe” she says.

A new generation

These days the business has passed into the hands of son Ian, although dad Nigel is still very much involved. Along with his sister Rachel, Ian spent a lot of time around the homes as they were growing up. As teenagers, both helped in the kitchen and as carers, and always enjoyed being around residents, and so Maggie can rest easy knowing that the business will continue with the strong family ethos on which it was founded.

Rachel meanwhile took her own route into the care sector and after gaining a psychology degree, went into mental health nursing, but dad Nigel is still working full time in the business.

While Maggie s main focus now is the Alzheimer Cafe charity work, she is also looking forward to spending more time with the next generation – Ian and Amy’s children Clara, 10, and Wilfred, 8, plus Rachel and Adam s four month-old baby Beatrice, who she says are an absolute delight.

“I suppose Nigel and I might also be able to plan a few holidays” she says. “But to be honest, we both just love being busy and involved!”

After years of planning and fundraising, the vision of a dementia resource centre was finally realised in May 2024 when Parklands Wellbeing Club completed and opened to the public. Since then it has added training and consulting rooms, a lift to improve access, a set of therapy rooms, and most recently a hairdressing salon. And the work goes on.

“I still put in the hours here at Parklands because to be honest it doesn’t feel like work – it’s exciting. We have so many good-hearted, willing volunteers, always busily doing things – there is no place quite like it”.