Personal experience has made me realise how important our Silver Linings elderly care competition is

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In April 2020, just a month or so into the pandemic, my mother-in-law, Truus, had a brain haemorrhage, starting a trail of events that led my wife and I to move to Heerlen in the Netherlands to help look after her now that she is disabled. The pic above is of Truus and I.

Luckily, my relationship with Truus bucks all the classic mother-in-law jokes; we get on marvellously, which is good because we’ve been living together in a one-bedroom flat for the last 4 months ;0) 

My wife and I bought a flat nearby, which we have been decorating for when we eventually move in. That’s where we work during the day before heading back to Truus’ place in the evening and sleeping on the sofa bed.

Living together helps us to help Truus with the things she can no longer do easily such as cooking and cleaning. But more importantly, perhaps, it’s kept her company during this lockdown period when she hasn’t been able to receive visitors.

Ironically, my personal situation with Truus had nothing to do with my separate work at RI with Sally Bridgeland and Rachel Melsom on the Silver Linings Competition: Because our pension beneficiaries really do matter, which had started a few months earlier.

But the two have become intrinsically linked as I’ve realised just how important are suitable accommodation, related social and moral support, technology and practical help. 

Seeing that up-close-and-personal is revelatory!  

Many of you will be aware that the Silver Linings Competition is subtitled: A think > do competition for ‘brainwaves’ and ‘business plans’ to make elderly care sustainable

The prizes are: 

Brainwaves: £500 each for the 8 best brainwaves  

Business Plans: £10,000 to the winning entry, and  £5,000 to 2x runner-up entries

We’ve had loads of great Brainwave entries, and there is still time to enter a ‘Brainwave’ before the closing date at the end of this month, so please pass the link on to anyone you think might have some great ideas to contribute. 

After that, we’ll be holding a Digital Brainwaves Awards Event on May 24 to announce the winners of the ‘Brainwaves’ section of the competition, and inviting attendees to vote for the Brainwave of Brainwaves to win an extra £500. We really hope you can join!

You can sign up for the free event here.

The Digital Event will feature:

• Video snippet explanations of the Brainwaves by the winners
• Audience poll to pick the Brainwave of Brainwaves
• Silver Linings presentation and Q&A on the Business Plans section of the competition to win £10k + 2x £5k runner-up prizes in October 2021

A think > do competition is one where we collect ideas (Brainwaves) and Business Plans as ‘catalysts’ that we then present to investors at ‘events’ with the aim of taking them to investable projects.

The Silver Linings Competition will be judged by an expert, interdisciplinary panel.

The competition prize money is being supported by our great sponsors: The Pension Insurance Corporation, Darwin Alternative Investment Management, Triple Point, Federated Hermes and Audley Group.