ON behalf of Alzheimer Scotland, I wish to express our sincere thanks to everyone in the Cowdenbeath-Lochglly area who have downloaded our missing person app Purple Alert since going live, this includes our amazing volunteers and the families and carers who we support.

It is thanks to those individuals that we were able to mark the second birthday of the app on World Alzheimer’s Day (September 21) with the news that we had reached 10,000 downloads.

Developed in partnership with Police Scotland and partners from across the public sector, Purple Alert is designed to support the families and carers of people living with dementia during an immediate missing person search. The app supports a Police Scotland’s National Person's Unit search, by sharing key information about the missing person at the point of crisis and alerts all users of an active local search.

With over 90,000 people living with dementia in Scotland today and with the number on the rise, we’re asking if your readers will download the free app giving us more eyes and ears on the ground during a missing person search, to help support people with dementia who may become missing for many different reasons. The app is helping us to further unify communities towards creating a dementia-friendly Scotland where people living with dementia feel valued, recognised and supported.

Purple Alert, the first app of its kind in the UK which helps find people with dementia when they are lost, is a free-to-download for iOS and Android smartphones and can be downloaded from purplealert.org.uk. If you have any questions about dementia and of our local support and services call Alzheimer Scotland’s 24-Hour Freephone Dementia Helpline on 0808 808 3000.

Together we aim to make sure nobody faces dementia alone.

JOYCE GRAY,

Deputy Director of Development,

Alzheimer Scotland.