
A message from our founder
Hello, I'm Lea Millen — welcome to remembr.
I'm 67. A wife, sister to three other sisters, mother and grandmother, and part of a large extended family.
I apprenticed as a hairdresser at fourteen, and I'm still hairdressing today — fifty-three years on. For the past twenty-five of those years I've run my own salon inside a busy retirement village. And as most people know, your hairdresser is more than a hairdresser — over time we become friends, confidants, pseudo-counsellors, a shoulder to cry on.
This is where my story with remembr begins. Over twenty-five years I've watched clients arrive in the community as vibrant, active retirees with plans. And over those same twenty-five years, I've watched too many of them start slipping — into early-onset dementia, and beyond. These are people I see every day. Friends. People who welcomed me into their community.
I have farewelled too many. I get upset watching them slowly fade. Memory. Mobility. Until the end.
It's the saddest thing to witness. I also stay in close contact with their families, who are struggling to care for their parents and grandparents. For me it is so much more than that. I don't have one or two parents to manage — I live this heartbreak many, many times over.
It made me think — will this happen to me as I age? What could we do to mitigate it? Nothing really. There is no magic pill, and there is no surgical fix. But researching deeper, I found reminiscence therapy: using visual cues from photographs, music and other personal resources to gently restore memory. I was already seeing it happen in the salon. An old-time station playing, a favourite song or singer would come on, and instantly it was like someone turned a light back on. They were back… at least, for a little while.
So we went deeper. We built remembr — not only for dementia, but for the completely opposite end of the life memories scale: kids. So in years to come there are memories to enjoy from day one, compiled by the families themselves.
Take the time to look at John's dementia journey and baby Ella's family-building journey in the next section — and see how well remembr works.
Thank you for visiting. I wish you all many happy memories.
Your purchase assists us in donating part of our revenues to dementia research organisations, and to children's medical research charities, in the region where you live. Every family who joins us helps fund the next breakthrough.
Until we start building memories together…
— Lea Millen, founder











