CARE home staff were brought to tears by a child’s poem about the need to care for elderly people.

The prize-winning poem, submitted for a competition by Abbey House Care Home, stressed that people should be treated equally with respect.

Its author, 11-year-old Jack Mister, a pupil at Abbey Meads Community Primary School, said: “The poem represents that everybody’s the same and whoever they are and whatever’s wrong we are all equal.”

The competition asked youngsters from Abbey Meads primary and Abbey Park School to create artistic responses to dementia and those who suffer with the condition.

Youngster Jack said: “People with dementia, they’re still people and they’re still the same.”

Kinga Dabrowska of Abbey House said: “We wanted children to present a creative imagining of old age. The response was great and the children were so amazing.

“Jack’s poem had everyone in tears. I won’t be able to read it when we present the prize, so I need to ask Jack to do it.

“The children who entered had such a great understanding of dementia. Their work showed the children understood that people with dementia still need to be included in life.”

Year 11 pupil Amy Hillier won the Abbey Park competition category with a collage of old and young faces. The 15-year-old from Redhouse said: “I just wanted to show there are connections between young and old people. Age is just a number.”

Prizes were donated by Laser Quest, the Swindon Wildcats, Freedog trampoline park, the Oasis Leisure Centre and Roves Farm.

Jack's poem:

Big or small

Black or white

We all share the same daylight

Short or tall

Young or old

We all feel the same water cold

Some fight for rights

Some fight in the war

We all walk across

The same humble floor

We shall not judge each other

We all have one heart

We are all beautiful

We are all smart

If we have problems

With our body

Or problems with our minds

Each of us is special

So always be kind

This week marks Dementia Action Week, with activities across Swindon led by Swindon Borough Council. For more, visit: www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-involved/dementia-action-week.