Whitby fish and chips - the recipe for happiness for Marj, 90

It’s a chilly day, but the sun is valiantly pushing through the clouds.

“This is my favourite place,” she says.

Marj, who is a sprightly 90, has dementia, and very limited short-term memory.

She doesn’t know where her room is, can’t recall the way to the loo and doesn’t even remember her husband.

The only thing she knows, say carers at The Mayfield Care Home where she now lives, is that Whitby is the best place in the world, and she has children who love her.

Her long-term recall, however, is excellent - put on an old Nat King Cole song, and she knows all the words.

The Mayfield cooked up the scheme to take Marj back to her favourite bench – and it brings back such memories.

On a trip around town, Marj remembered her old house, the ships in the harbour, the harbour bridge and the fish and chip shop on the corner.

Marj moved into The Mayfield last April, but has lived in Whitby for many years.

“I’m Yorkshire through and through,” she says with a grin.

“Cut my head off and I’d have ‘Yorkshire’ written inside me.”

In 1957, she met her husband Peter, who was in the RAF.

The pair spent the majority of their married life travelling the world, living in Germany, Singapore, Wales and multiple locations across England before eventually moving to Church Street in Whitby.

From there, Marj would walk every day to Mister Chips to buy fish, chips and a cup of tea, which she would take to a bench overlooking the harbour.

Five or six years ago, however, Marj started to develop signs of dementia: losing money; putting the kettle in her bedroom.

Now, her life revolves largely around The Mayfield, where she is able to live a relatively independent life within its safety, taking part in Tai Chi and armchair exercises; singing along to Nat King Cole in the afternoons.

The trip into Whitby, however - the idea of Tobyn Dickinson, CEO of The Mayfield - seemed to unlock something in Marj.

Reminiscence is a powerful tool when it comes to improving the life of someone with dementia.

Research shows that events and facts that are most frequently retrieved and used over a lifetime - like a daily trip to the fish and chip shop, for example - are better recalled by those with Alzheimer’s in later life.

“We told her before where she was going and then she kept saying “we’re going to my favourite place’”, says Tobyn.

“When we took her down, her face lit up as soon as she got out of the taxi.

"She knew exactly where she was.”

As well as the bench, Marj was taken to her old home, and met some of her former neighbours.

The visit jogged all sorts of memories, from the views from front and back, to the old salt bin used to grit paths in the winter.

Marj recalled Whitby’s Regatta, her favourite local shops (she knew all the shopkeepers) and the best pubs.

“I used to love watching all the parades,” she recalls, “and the rowing races and Red Arrows.”