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Your memories matter

How much do you know about your mum, dad, granny or other relative? We’re challenging everyone to discover how much they know about their loved ones and help you to capture the memories and achievements of their lives.

Test your knowledge

Do you know what is your mum’s most cherished memory? Or where your dad was born?
What was your grandmother’s nickname at school?

Complete our quiz below to find out just how much you know about your loved ones. Once you have completed your answers, you can print off the list and talk to them about the questions you weren't sure of.

                                                                 Start Quiz

Now, why not start a scrapbook or keepsake box detailing the achievements and memories of your loved one?

To help you start to capture the key memories of your parents or grandparents, these hints and tips will help guide you on which questions to ask. 

  • Do they have any certificates, trophies or medals of which they are proud?
  • Are they a hoarder of keepsakes? Perhaps they have letters, concert programmes or birthday cards that are special.
  • Ask what they were good at when they were at school? Do they still have school reports or school work in their possession?
  • Ask your mum or dad if they were ever a collector or perhaps they still are? Perhaps it was stamps, magazines or coins
  • Ask to see family albums/photographs and for copies of photographs that typify your relative’s life milestones - a new house, a wedding, the arrival of a much-loved pet

 

 

Memory facts

  • Research suggests that women have memories from earlier in their lives than men.
  • 60% of our top memories date from when we are aged between 15 and 30 years-old - known as "the reminiscence bump".
  • Memories triggered by scent have a stronger emotional connection, and therefore appear more intense than others.
  • London taxi drivers, who famously know all London’s streets by heart, have a larger than normal part of the brain called the hippocampus.
  • In a BBC/Leeds University poll the Nation’s top "flashbulb" memory was the September 11 attacks on New York with the Death of Diana, Princess of Wales in second place and thirdly the assassination of President Kennedy.
  • 81 million people worldwide are predicted to have some form of dementia by 2040 – three times today’s level.

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Bupa supporting this film, launched in February 2011, which celebrates how memories allow people to rediscover and reconnect with loved ones living with dementia.

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