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Trail blazing for dementia
Photo: Sarah Pettenon
A nurse has taken on the Kokoda Trail to raise funds for dementia care.
Sarah Pettenon interviewed by Dallas Bastian
Alzheimer’ s Australia recently put out a call for people passionate about fighting dementia to walk the Kokoda Trail in aid of research and support. Registered nurse Sarah Pettenon answered the challenge.
Pettenon, manager of person directed care at Lifeview Residential Care, joined a small group of volunteers, including her colleague, chief financial officer James van Beek, on the expedition. Over 10 days, the party hiked the single-file trail that links Papua New Guinea’ s mountainous centre to Owers’ Corner near Port Moresby.
Both of Lifeview’ s trekkers helped the provider’ s staff members, residents and families in their fundraising efforts, including the raffling of a trailer full of household goods worth about $ 3000. The team said all funds raised will go directly to Alzheimer’ s Australia Vic.
Pettenon, who specialises in the care of people living with dementia, said she walked the trail because she witnesses daily the impact dementia has on individuals and their carers.
Aged Care Insite spoke with Pettenon about the gruelling trek and what she hopes people think about when it comes to dementia care.
ACI: What were those first days like on the trail? SP: Well, we had a very early start. We had to be at an airport in Port Moresby to fly to Kokoda. We arrived in Kokoda around
8.30am, where we met porters and the trek leader. Then we went to a little place called Hoi. It was very hot – 38 degrees – and when we first started at the Arches of the beginning of the Kokoda Trail, I think we were all just trying to acclimatise to the heat. We were out in the sun, and I think we all had a headache that evening, just because we needed to drink more and just adjust to the whole environment.
We were probably a little bit apprehensive. We didn’ t know anyone until that morning, or the night before where we met the remaining trekkers and our guide. I think we set off feeling quite apprehensive and nervous. Just the heat, it really did hit you in the face.
The trail is 96 kilometres, and you walked in it 10 days. What did you find most challenging about it? I suppose the toilet facilities were a main topic of conversation among the trekkers. You just had to overcome your anxiety around the toilet facilities and move on.
Physically, I felt I had prepared and done quite a bit of training prior to going to Kokoda. I felt I was up to the challenges of the terrain. Going downhill was definitely tough on your knees. I had to take Nurofen a couple of times to overcome that discomfort.
Mentally, I felt day five was my toughest day. We were heading in the right direction but we went further than we were supposed to, and our guide had to say to the trek leader:“ Look, we’ ve actually gone further than we were meant to. We need to backtrack.” That kind of threw me into a bit of a spin mentally. At that point, I had to put some music on and just listen to it with my headphones, because I just needed to have something to distract me.
30 agedcareinsite. com. au